B. P. I.— 246. 



THE Al'l'LICATlOX OP VEGETATIM: PROPAGATION 

 TO PEGL'MIXOUS P'ORAGE PLANTS." 



By J. M. \\'E.sT(i.\TE, Assistant Agroslologist in Charge of Alfalfa and Clover Introduc- 

 tion, Forage Crop Investigations, and George W. Oliver, Plant Propagator, Seed and 

 Plant Introduction Investigations. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The practical (UfTiciilties which have presented themselves in 

 connection with the development of improved strains of peremiial 

 forage plants have been such as to retard the progress of the work. 

 The necessity for isolation to prevent promiscuous pollination and 

 the time required to secure any considerahle quantity of seed have 

 together served to handicap seriously the work of developing new 

 strains of forage plants, especially the perennial legumes. The 

 method of propagating forage plants by means of cuttings herein 

 described has been worked out chiefly in connection with Medicago 

 sativa and Trifolium pratense, but preliminary experiments indicate 

 that it may be quite as successfully adapted to all dicotyledonous 

 forage plants. Among the species which have been successfull}^ pro- 

 pagated in this manner may be mentioned Medicago sativa, Melilotus 

 officinalis, M. alba, Trifolium pratense, and T. repens. B}^ using 

 the offsets or innovations the method is also applicable to grasses. 



A number of problems in comiection with the self -sterility of the 

 different species in question demand further attention. It is hoped 

 that the method here suggested will stimulate the work of developing 

 varieties of forage crops throughout the country. 



a In the summer of 1903 a plot of Peruvian alfalfa (S. P. I. No. 9.303) in the gi'ass 

 garden of the Department of Agi-iculture proved resistant to the leaf-spot disease 

 {Pseudopeziza medicaginis), which nearly ruined the check plot of ordinary alfalfa. 

 Although this strain is nonhardy and ordinarily winterkills except in the southern 

 portions of the United States, there were two plants which survived the severe winter 

 of 1903M in AYashington, D. C. These points, together with the hairiness, leafiness, 

 and vigorous growth of this variety, brought it to the attention of those interested 

 in breeding alfalfa. These plants were placed in large pots and moved to the green- 

 house to be utilized in the hybridization work inaugurated by Dr. B. T. Galloway. 

 Later on Doctor Galloway conceived the idea of raising a large number of plants of 

 these two individuals vegetatively, in order to produce a large quantity of seeds the 

 same season. This was successfully accomplished by the method here described. 

 The adaptation of this method to the breeding of forage crops, especially the legumes, 

 has proved so promising that it is deemed advisable to publish the results ob- 

 tained. — C. V. Piper, Agroslologist in Charge of Forage Crop Investigations. 



102— IV 



33 



