10 BREEDING DKOUGHT-EESISTANT FORAGE PLANTS. 



injron smithii), and other species. At the outset, variety tests 

 were made with seed obtained from all available sources. More 

 than twenty different varieties of alfalfa, various species of grasses, 

 strains of clover, and varieties of foxtail millet were tested side by 

 side. Numerous individual plant selections were made from the 

 varieties of these crops that proved to be most drought resistant and 

 otherwise valuable.'* 



STATIONS WHERE WORK IS NOW IN PROGRESS. 



INCEPTION OF THE WORK. 



The Bureau of Plant Industry in 1906 undertook coo])eration in 

 the breeding work at Highmore substation, South Dakota, Mr. T. 11. 

 Kearney being in charge of tlie work on the part of the Bureau. 

 In 1907 Professor Wlieeler resigned his position as botanist of the 

 South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. In May, 1908, 

 cooperation in forage-plant breeding between the Bureau and the 

 South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station was discontinued and 

 the work of this office was transferred to the experiment farm which 

 is conducted by the Bureau of Plant Industry in cooperation with the 

 project of the Unitecl States Reclamation Service, at Bellefourche, 

 S. Dak. Work was begun at Bellefourche with about forty selections 

 of alfalfa, a strain of amber sorgo, and a strain of smooth brome- 

 grass, all of which had been found promising at Highmore. Part of 

 the breeding w^ork at Bellefourche is carried on in cooperation with 

 the variety testing conducted at that station by the Office of Forage- 

 Crop Investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 



In 1908 breeding work was also begun at the Akron (Colo.) Dry- 

 Land Station of the Ofhce of Dry-Land Agriculture Investigations, 

 starting with varieties and strains of forage plants that had pre- 

 viously given good results at Highmore and at Bellefourche. 



BELLEFOURCHE EXPERIMENT FARM. 



The Bellefourche Experiment Farm is conducted by the Office of 

 Western Agricultural Extension/ Bureau of Plant Industry, on the 

 Bellefourche project of the United States Reclamation Service in 

 South Dakota. It is located 20 miles east and 4 miles north of the 

 town of Bellefourche. An irrigation canal has been planned to ex- 

 tend through the farm, dividing it into two nearly equal parts. It 



oThe preliminary results of this work were reported by Prof. W. A. Wheeler in 

 Bulletin 101, of the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, published in 

 March, 1907. 



b During the first year when this breeding work was carried on at Bellefourche the 

 experiment farm was under the direction of the Office of Dry-Land Agriculture 

 Investigations. 

 196 



