242 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



SUGAR BEET BREEDING. 



The sugar beet breeding work had its beginning in 1919, when Mr. 

 Hugh Smith made a large number of selections from a few commercial 

 sorts. He used these in the following year in connection with his thesis 

 on methods of breeding sugar beets. 



When Mr. Down returned from the war he brought with him a strain 

 of beets from Germany, and undertook the collection of all the promis- 

 ing commercial lots of sugar beets that could be found in the trade of 

 this country. In 1921 Mr. Down planted a varietal series, and has re- 

 peated the series in each of the following two years. 



In 1922 an attempt was made to self-fertilize individual selections 

 in isolation. Those that had been selected at the Michigan Agricultural 

 College were planted in farmers' gardens not far from the college, but 

 because of poor storage conditions these beets did not do well. 



Another lot of isolations was obtained from the iSt. Louis Sugar 

 Company. These were planted by Mr. Down in Gratiot county, ahd 

 from that source he has obtained quite a number of lots of seed from 

 individual beets. These progenies are included in the 1923 series. In 

 addition to this, the United iStates Department discontinued their plant 

 breeding work at Blissfield this spring, asking us to continue the work 

 with the stock that they had at hand in connection with that station. 

 This has so expanded the sugar beet breeding work that Mr. Down will 

 now devote his entire time to that crop. 



WHEAT BREEDING. 



The present wheat varietal series contains a large number of selec- 

 tions coming from the crossing work of previous years, notably 1912, 

 1916, and 1919. These are stranis that have been fixed in the centgener 

 plats and are now under a competitive yield test. iSix of these are 

 also being increased for distribution. In addition to this the centgener 

 series of this year contains an extension of the selection work from 

 crosses of more recent date, and also from commercial sources. A new 

 series of crosses in wheat was made in the spring pf 1923. 



REPORT OF RESEARCH ASSOCIATE C. R. MEGEE. 



IN CHARGE OP FORAGE CROP INVESTIGATIONS. 



A study of the value of clover seed from the various producing centers 

 for Michigan conditions : 



Southern European strains were found to be inferior to Michigan Red 

 Clover. Plants from Italian seed were much less winter hardy and 

 much more susceptible to anthracnose than plants from Michigan seed. 

 The French strain was not injured to as great an extent as the Italian. 

 However, it showed considerable winter killing and anthracnose, and was 

 inferior to the Michigan strain. A number of strains from Northern 



