VEGETATIVE PROPAGATION OF LEGirMINOUS FORAGE PLANTS. 37 



The behavior of any species under continued inbreeding will deter- 

 mine the miniimun number of plants which can be utilized as the 

 foundation stock for a given strain. It is, of course, impossible to 

 start with a single individual in case it is absolutely sterile to its own 

 pollen. It may be, however, that the differentiation incident to vege- 

 tative propagation permits the use of pollen of plants derived from the 

 same individual. If this last condition does not obtain, the employ- 

 ment of at least two individuals is essential. These should, of course, 

 be as nearly identical as possible with regard to the desired character- 

 istics. 



The legumes are variable in respect to self-pollination, and unfortu- 

 nately there still remains a great deal of work to be done in this direc- 

 tion, as many of the early experiments were not performed under as 

 rigid conditions as might be wi.shed. It is pr()ba])le that many flowers 

 failing to set seed wiien bagged fail not l)ecause they are sterile to 

 their own pollen, but because of abnormal conditions incident to the 

 bagging. A series of experiments is in progress to determine whether 

 a number of the species of legumes usually regarded as self-sterile are 

 not to a certain extent self-fertile, at least to pollen from other por- 

 tions of the same i)lant or from another plant produced from a cutting 

 from the same individual. 



102— IV 



