PLANT BREEDING FARM. 185 



to 1,000 square feet, will be found beneficial. Some people recommend 

 sowing grass seed on the snow. I do not know how practical this system 

 is as I have seen it sown this way but would consider that it would leave 

 seed unevenly distributed over the soil. 



Where the soil is favorable and climatic conditions are the same and 

 an ideal lawn grass is desired, plant Kentucky blue grass, using as a 

 nurse crop white clover at the rate of 5 per cent in weight to the blue 

 grass. 



Under the immediate neighborhood of large trees where the lawn is 

 heavily shaded, a mixture consisting of equal parts of Kentucky blue 

 grass, wood meadow, and one-fourth of various leaved fescue and crested 

 dogs' tail is fine. 



Where an immdeiate effect is desired and growing conditions are not 

 perfect a mixture of the following grasses is preferable: Kentucky blue 

 grass 40 per cent, Canada blue grass 20 per cent, perennial rye grass 20 

 per cent, creeping bent grass 10 per cent, and sheep fescue 10 per cent. 

 Seed should be sown liberally, about one quart to 300 square feet should 

 be the minimum quantity required for a new lawn. One-half this quan- 

 tity if reseeding an old one. If an immediate effect is desired used one- 

 third more seed. 



Do not buy cheap seed. Try to get seed that will weigh about 

 eighteen or twenty pounds per bushel. 



PLANT-BREEDING FARM. 

 Max Pfaender, Mitchell, Neb. 



I am a horticulturist out of pure love for this line of work, and as 

 such I wish to offer a suggestion which came to my mind while perusing 

 the pages of the annual report of our State Horticultural Society for 

 1911. 



Why can not we have a horticultural plant-breeding farm? — a plant- 

 breeding farm with the object in view of creating and producing new va- 

 rieties of the various fruits, ornamental trees, shrubs and flowers — vari- 

 eties that are actual liome products, produced in part from our own na- 

 tive kinds, partly from our sorts now under cultivation and partly from 

 best varieties obtainable from other states and countries. 



Let this plant-breeding farm be modeled partly after that started by 

 the efforts of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society. It should be 

 in charge of a good practical superintendent who has a wide knowledge 

 of the practice and theory of plant breeding. The farm should be under 

 the general supervision of a board consisting of four or five members, 

 one or more to be elected by the Nebraska State Horticultural Society, 

 one to be a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Ne- 

 braska, and the professor of horticulture at the Experiment Station, ex- 

 officio — or some such similar board — the main consideration being to 

 secure a board which would have at heart the horticultural advancement 

 and improvement of our state. 



