DEPARTMENT OF EXPERIMENTAL PLANT-BREEDING. 



This department was organized in April, 1907, and the experiments 

 have thus been under way but one season, so that little advance has 

 been made. 



Teaching Work. 



The principal work of this department is experimental, and only- 

 such graduate students are accepted as are sufficiently advanced in 

 training to conduct investigations under direction. Thirteen sucli 

 graduate students have pursued investigations in the department dur- 

 ing the last year. Problems directly connected with the investigations 

 under way, are assigned to such students, and in this way a much 

 greater amount of work can be accomplished than would otherwise 

 be possible. 



Investigations. 



Timothy breeding experiments. — New York is a State of diversified 

 agricultural interests, but the hay crop far outranks all others in total 

 acreage and value of product, reaching in 1907, the last year for which 

 reliable figures are available, a total of 4,717,000 acres with a valua- 

 tion of $91,388,000. Timothy forms far the greater proportion of the 

 hay crop and doubtless greatly exceeds in value that of any other 

 crop grown in the State. Any experiments, therefore, which may 

 lead to the bettering of this crop, are of the greatest importance to 

 the agricultural interests of the State. 



Methods of experimentation. — The experiments, which are being con- 

 ducted on a fairly extensive scale, were started in 1903 by Professors 

 Hunt and Gilmore, then of the Department of Agronomy. The ex- 

 periments were placed in charge of the Department of Experimental 

 Plant-Breeding in July, 1907. In beginning the experiments, heads 

 of timothy were secured from numerous locations in this and foreign 

 countries, and seed from these was germinated in sterilized soil. The 

 young plants were grown for a time in pots, after which they were 

 planted in the field, being placed in rows three feet apart each way. 

 Of these plants there were originally planted 12,516, the great major- 

 ity of which are still living. 



In 1905. selections were made from these plants of individuals show- 

 ing various interesting variations, such as heavy yield, light yield, 



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