EXPERIMENT STATION REPORTS. 169 



KEl'OlIT OF THE DIVISION OF FAKM CROPS. 



Diirclor K. S. Shaw, College. 



Dear Sir — 1 wish to submit the followiug rci)ort of the Division of 

 Farm Crops for the year ending June 30th, 1913. 



CROP IMPROVEMENT. 



The most important line of investigation carried on by the division 

 is that of Crop Improvement, which has been under the able 

 direction of Mr. F. A. Spragg who reports upon this work as follows: 



"The wheat crosses made last year have come through the winter in 

 good shape and are in head. There are twenty-four of these crosses, 

 representing combinations of our better varieties that have given good 

 quality and yield and endured the winters of 1911 and 1912. 



Besides crosses in wheat the Station has over a hundred plats rep- 

 resenting crosses in barley and oats. 



The winter barleys have a better stand and general vigor than the 

 wheats growing along side. In another year we will have a chance 

 to increase these to a point where they can be sent out to farmers. 



The pedigreed ryes have much larger, better filled heads than the 

 common sorts. When we come to think of it, it is surprising how many 

 poorly filled ryes there are in the country. If all the rye flowers fer- 

 tilize and produce grains there should be four rows of grains on a 

 head. Most commercial ryes have very small heads and besides this, 

 very little more than two rows of grain on a head. The average yic d 

 for rye in the United States is 15 bushels per acre. The Station's pedi- 

 greed vycfi yielded about 4,5 bushels per acre in 1912. 



In 1913 there are 20 spring barley plats, 5 winter barley plats, about 

 170 oats plats, 6 rye plats, 4 spelt plats, and over 200 wheat plats. 



A ncAv 4000 plant alfalfa nursery has just been set out. The mothers 

 of these plants have stood two ice sheets, produced a good amount of 

 hay. and also seed in 1913. This nursery should represent the cream 

 of all the 100 lots of alfalfa that have been tested and selected at the 

 Station. 



The timothy plats have been very interesting this year. Eighty-four 

 strains were selected out of over 2000 last fall. These selected lots are 

 growing in rows, in comparison with commercial timothy. 



Seventy-two varieties of peas are being tested in rows, making with 

 the checks 90 plats. These were imported by the U. S. Dept. from 

 various parts of the world. They are an interesting set of plats now. 



In corn besides the ear-row' test, a large number of crosses are being 

 made to test relative value of first-generation crosses as compared with 

 the original sorts." 



The experiment in testing varieties of corn has been continued in much 

 the same way as in previous years. Through this experiment and the 

 co-operative tests carried on throughout the state several varieties have 

 been discovered which give promise of being much more productive, and 

 much better adapted to Michigan conditions than the mongrel and un- 

 selected varieties commonly grown. In several instances co operators 



