The Bulletin. 35 



The best head from each plant of every selection from each variety 

 is now taken and the weight and number of grains recorded. The 

 grains from each of these heads are planted in rows four inches 

 apart each way. A single head occupies a row. 



The development of the different plants from each head is carefully 

 studied during the season and those showing desirable characteristics 

 are noted and numbered. 



Of the large number of plants thus selected only one hundred of 

 each variety are retained at harvest time, and later in the season this 

 number is culled down to ten. The progeny of each plant of each 

 variety is kept separate. 



In the fall the seeds of each variety thus saved are planted in 

 small squares of one hundred plants each, called centgeners, the 

 term meaning one hundred plants of a single or one parentage. The 

 following season the yields from the different centgeners are carefully 

 noted and compared and those giving promise of most value will 

 be propagated and offered to the farmers as improved strains or new 

 varieties. 



This method of improvement with, perhaps, some alterations, will 

 go on continuously, so that the Department will be able, from time 

 to time, to offer the wheat and oat growers of the State varieties that 

 shall climb higher and higher in their producing power. 



It will be well to say in this connection that wheats, like other 

 plants, bred under a given condition of soil must be grown on this 

 type of soil and under like conditions of fertilization and cultiva- 

 tion if best results are to be obtained. Plants become adapted and 

 adjusted to the particular soil and climatic environment in which 

 they are developed, and their yielding capacities are generally in- 

 fluenced adversely when a radical change in the environment occurs. 



SOURCES OF SEED TESTED. 



The records of the sources of many of the varieties tested have 

 been lost. The following were obtained from the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture, at Wash- 

 ington, D. C. : 



Velvet Don No. 8231 



Oltra 



Fish Headed . 



Khorkov 



Mahomed Ben 

 Adjina 



Long Headed 

 Kubanka . . . 

 Kubanka . . . 

 Mahmandi . . 

 Medeah .... 



5638 

 (i^OS 

 7780 

 7793 

 7580 

 6599 

 7786 

 8522 

 7792 

 7579 



