192 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



latter type has not been selected against as such, but has proven to be unhardy 

 as well as having poor producing plants. The highest yielders of hay and 

 seed from the best producing progenies have become the mothers of the next 

 generation. Those that have survived the test, being hardy and productive, 

 are all low crowned plants, branching below the surface of the ground. They 

 also have a branching root system. 



Visitors often ask, "What variety of alfalfa does the test show to be best?" 

 This is a hard question, because the nursery shows as much difference among 

 the various strains within a variety as it does among varieties. One strain of 

 Grimm, for instance, may easily yield twice as much as another strain of 

 Grimm. It may grow twice as tall, and be very much more resistant to leaf 

 spot, a disease that turns the crop yellow. The fact is that all of the hardy 

 productive types have originated in crosses between yellow flowered Siberian 

 alfalfa and purple flowered southern types. 



As seed has been distributed from this alfalfa breeding work, the problem 

 now is to develop a Michigan seed industry. A start is being made in that 

 direction, with Hardigan alfalfa. 



As the results with spring barley have never been satisfactorily reported, 

 and as a new barley varietal series has just completed a three year period, it 

 seems proper to give this work a little more than a passing notice. The 

 historical portion of Circular No. 32 (printed in 1916) outlines the first ten years 

 of work with spring barley, and summarizes them Avith the statement that 

 "the best spring barley that this investigation has been able to find is produc- 

 ing less feed (pounds of grain) per acre than the high grade varieties of oats". 

 This is compared with the Alexander, Worthy, College Success and College 

 Wonder oats, that had then been introduced as new commercial varieties from 

 the breeding work of the Michigan Agricultural College. 



Be this as it may, there is a demand for barley for certain feeding operations, 

 where oats are considered unsatisfactory. Thus, in 1918 these investigations 

 introduced two new varieties of barley. These are the Mich-two-row (No. 

 02708) and Michigan Black Barbless (No. 31604). They originated in indi- 

 vidually selected plants of 1910 and 1913 respectively, and have proven to be 

 successful commercial varieties. 



The earlier varietal testing work (up to and including 1916), located a 

 number of promising varieties that needed purification. These were placed 

 in selection plats in 1917, where the individual seeds were planted five inches 

 apart each way. The selected plants became mothers of plant-rows. in 1918. 

 This series included forty-eight new strains and the checks [a standard 

 variety planted every fourth row] making the series sixty-five plant-rows. 

 Those that compared favorably with the checks were retained and entered 

 the varietal series April 5, 1919. Fortunately this was gotten in early, as 

 protracted rains prevented the planting of any more grains until May first, 

 resulting in failure for the late planted series. The results of this series 

 during the years 1919 and 1921 follows; — - 



