EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 119 



BARLEY. 



The breeding work with this crop has not been undertaken as ex- 

 tensively as with wheat and oats. An attempt is being made to im- 

 prove a few highly recommended varieties. 



OATS. 



A part of this selection w^ork was first undertaken by Prof. J. A, 

 Jeffery in 1900, but was turned over to the station in 1907. In addi- 

 tion to this however, last year the station had twenty-three varieties 

 placed in the nursery, followed by sixteen more this year. 



A commerical variety is in reality a mixture of several strains, the 

 chances being that some one strain is the prolific yielder, the balance 

 acting merely as fillers. The object therefore is to isolate the prolific 

 strains and reject the others. The process of selection in this case is 

 similar to that heretofore described going back to the individual plant. 

 At present there are one hundred twenty-eight oat breeding plots; 

 sixty-two are from the seed of as many individual plants of last year. 

 There are also seventeen ''beds'' or plots in the first year and a series 

 of forty-nine one one-hundredths acre plots, fifteen of which trace to 

 single plants in 190G. 



FLAX. 



The production of flax, especially for the seed product, has been 

 practically dropped" and attention concentrated on the fiber flax prob- 

 lems. There are now tAvo hundred forty-nine separate plots of fiber 

 flax mostly produced from seed selected here last year. Only those 

 ])lots producing the tallest and finest stems will enter into next year's 

 work. 



CORN. 



The station work in this line includes seven varieties grown in plots 

 in five dift'erent counties. In general, the work is that of ear row 

 testing designed to improve the yielding power. Some other corn prob- 

 lems are as follows: 



(1). What is the effect, if any, on the progeny from selecting seed 

 from smutted plants. 



(2). The result of selection from suckering versus non-suckering 

 plants. 



(3). Should seed corn to be planted on clay, sand or loam, be selected 

 fiMuu that grown on a similar soil in order to produce the best results. 



COWPEAS. 



During 190.3-5 this station collected numerous varieties of cowpeas 

 for test but most of them proved failures. Last year eighteen varieties 

 selected chiefly for early maturity remained. Of these, four varieties 

 were planted last spring, two of which appear to be promising as one 

 seems to be a profuse seed yielder, the otlier a great forage producer. 



