Methods of Breeding Oats 1785 



important to increase the production by increasing the yield per acre. 

 Better methods of culture and the use of better varieties for seeding pur- 

 poses will aid materially in increasing production. For the past six years 

 experiments have been conducted by the Department of Plant-breeding 

 at Cornell University, in order to improve the yield of oats. The oat- 

 breeding plats on the experiment station farm, from which the following 

 results have been obtained, are shown in Fig. 103. 



There is a great demand for good seed of all crops and this is especially 

 true of oats. Growers are looking for a better grade of seed and are 

 willing to pay for good quality. It is desirable, however, to know whether 

 a certain variety is adapted to the soil and the climate in which it is to be 

 grown. Not all varieties are adapted to the same locality, for, in a given 

 field, some will do well while others will fail completely. It is important, 

 then, for the grower to know local conditions and to try to find a variety 

 that will do well under those conditions. Usually it is not possible for the 

 grower to know whether a variety of seed oats that may be offered for sale 

 is better adapted to one locality than another until it has been tested on 

 his farm. 



How, then, is a farmer to obtain a good strain of oats? One of the best 

 ways is to choose the seed and to develop a strain that is well adapted to 

 local conditions. The grower may say that it is too much trouble to choose 

 his own seed. It is not too much trouble if one considers the time and the 

 money lost in planting inferior seed or seed that is not suited to a given 

 locality. It is the purpose of this discussion to point a way for the 

 improvement of oats. 



DIFFERENCES BETWEEN VARIETIES 



Before any crop-breeding work is undertaken, the first point to be 

 settled is the choice of a variety with which to start. It is necessary to 

 know the locality or environment in which the seed is to be grown, and to 

 study several varieties in order to determine which are best adapted 

 to the locality. The farmer would do well to obtain seed of four or five 

 well-known varieties and to grow small plats of these for at least two or 

 three years before any breeding is undertaken. Varieties may differ in 

 many ways. Some arc more resistant to drought than others, some are 

 more susceptible to rust or more affected by smut than others, and some 

 have stiffer straw, thicker hulls, or larger grain than ethers. 



The Department of Plant-breeding has been conducting tests of com- 

 mercial varieties of oats, as well as experiments in breeding this crop. 

 The results of some of these tests of commercial varieties are shown in 

 Table 1; 



