Methods of Breeding Oats 



1795 



good qualities. The popular belief that different varieties of oats grown 

 side by side may be mixed by the carrying of the pollen from one plant to 

 another, is incorrect. Oats are self -fertilized and very rarely does cross- 

 fertilization take place in an oat field. Occasionally this may occur, but 

 it is not common enough to cause the mixing of varieties. As has been 

 pointed out above, most of the many different types in commercial varie- 

 ties of oats have arisen in other ways. 



Another method of selection which is followed by the Department cf 

 Plant-breeding is illustrated in Fig. in. By this method seeds of the 

 variety which is to be improved are sown one at a 

 time and one foot apart. Two or three thousand seeds 

 should be planted in this way. 



When the plants are ripe the grower should go through 

 the plat and select the best plants. Since the plants all 

 have the same amount of space in the field, the differences 

 in the yields are likely to be due more to heredity than to 

 environment. The plants selected in this way may be 

 tested in the same manner as is outlined for the head 

 selections. 



Hybridization 



Oats may be improved by hybridization, or crossing. 

 This method has been described in detail in Lesson No. 

 38 of the Cornell Reading-Course for the Farm and it is 

 not necessary to discuss the method very fully here. As 

 stated above, oats are self-fertilized, and when crossing is 



to be done the oat flower must be opened before it reaches G ; II2 ; s ™tch 



1 of oats at the 



the blooming stage and the three anthers must be removed, blooming stage, 



In Fie. 112 is shown a spikelet of oats when the flower is s,l0wvl / the an- 

 & l (hers protruding 



in bloom. In Fig. 113 are shown the flower parts with 



the outer glumes removed. The three anthers (a) are shown, with the 



two-parted pistil (p) and the young embryo. 



Oat flowers mature very quickly after the oats have begun to head, 

 and when crossing is to be done it is necessary to examine a number of 

 flowers in order to determine just when the anthers may be removed, 

 which should be before they have shed their pollen. As a rule, if one 

 removes the anthers from the flower when they are still green, there is 

 really no danger of shedding any pollen. After the anthers have been 

 removed the flower should be carefully closed and the pistil allowed to 

 develop for one or two days before the pollen from the plant of the variety 

 that is to be used as the other parent is dusted on the pistil. As a rule 

 the pollen will be more abundant in the afternoon , between two and three 

 o'clock, since the oat usually blooms at about that time in this locality. 



