PLANT BREEDING 



Work in the department during the past year has been con- 

 fined to wheat, beans, alfalfa, and grain sorghums. The wheat 

 work during the year has received especial consideration owing 

 to the increased interest shown in bread wheat varieties. 



WHEAT 



The breeding work with wheat during the past year has been 

 along four distinct lines : (I) The testing of the promising hybrid 

 macaroni-bread wheat races which have been increased from last 

 vear's selections. (II)The growing and comparing of the second seed 

 generation (first plant generation) of new hybrids secured by cross- 

 ing Turkey and macaroni wheats on the native Sonora. (HI) A 

 study of the inheritance of the various characters in the bread 

 wheats, the Poulard wheats, and the macaroni wheats. (IV) The 

 field testing of various pure lines of wheat. The milling and baking 

 qualities, and also yield received especial consideration- 



I. The work with the macaroni-bread wheat crosses at Yuma 

 included three series oi plots; the plant rows, the small pedigree 

 increase plots, and the tenth- acre field plots. There were 540 plant 

 rows grown from plants of good habit and producing grain of 

 apparently good gluten content. Each row of this series was har- 

 vested and threshed separately, and the grain worked over in the 

 laboratory for type, texture, and total yield. The seed from about 

 one-third of these rows will be used in planting increase plots next 

 year, so that the excellent strains may be increased as rapidly as 

 possible. 



There were 100 pedigree increase plots planted from promising 

 plant rows of 1917. These have been carried thru a severe elimina- 

 tion test from which about 30 will be selected for testing under field 

 conditions in 1919 with the present best milling wheats of the State, 

 such as Early Baart. 



There were twenty-five tenth-acre field plots of hybrid wheats 

 which occupied the entire area of the Dyer block of the Yuma 

 Station. Some promising yields were obtained from this series; 

 one produced at the rate of 60 bushels per acre and two others be- 

 tween 50 and 55 bushels per acre. This is about 20 bushels per 

 acre more than was produced by the Early Baart. The quality of 

 these high yielders was fairly good, but neither the grain nor the 

 plants were of sufficient uniformity to be recommended for bread 

 wheat planting, and will require one or two more season's selec- 



