Department of Experimental Plant-Breeding. 27 



would suggest that we should have special quick growing and matur- 

 ing varieties tor short-period rotations, and other varieties for per- 

 manent or long-period meadows. We should have early, medium and 

 late varieties in a great hay-producing State like New York, where it 

 is a decided disadvantage to have the entire hay crop rfiature at the 

 same time. The various individuals differ from three weeks to a 

 month in the period of maturing and there is thus no reason why such 

 varieties should not be secured. Some sorts lodge easily, others are 

 strong-stemmed and never lodge; some plats are very leafy, others 

 nearly leafless ; some plants are so constituted that the leaves ripen 

 and dry up before the head is mature and ready to cut, others retain 

 the leaves fresh and green when the heads are normally ripe and 

 ready to cut. All of these important characters are being given care- 

 ful attention in the breeding work and there is reason to think that im- 

 proved varieties will result from the experiments which will be of 

 great value. 



Rust resistant timothies.— Rust on timothy (Puccinia graminis) has 

 in very recent years been rapidly increasing and has now become so 

 abundant that the crop is being severely injured. The disease is wide- 

 spread over the State, having been found to be common from the ex- 

 treme north-eastern part of the State to the extreme south-eastern 

 part. It is difficult to place an estimate on the general damage to the 

 crop, but the writer thinks that the crop of the State has been de- 

 creased at least 2 per cent, from this source the present season. The 

 impossibilitv of applying any mechanical treatment for such a disease 

 on a general farm crop such as timothy, renders it imperative that re- 

 sistant varieties be produced if possible. Fortunately it has been 

 found that a number of the strains under cultivation are to a large ex- 

 tent resistant to the disease and we are thus hopeful that resistant 

 varieties can be produced. Some of the plats from selected plants were 

 this year almost entirely free from the rust while adjoining plats were 

 in man3^ instances so severely injured as to have scarcely shown any 

 growth since the cutting. Such resistant plants put out a vigorous 

 second growth, while adjoining susceptible plats show only here and 

 there a weak isolated sprout. 



Co rn-hrecding experim en ts. 



Practical experiments. — Probably the most important problem in 

 corn-breeding in New York is the production of early races of dent 

 corn, which will be sufficiently early to mature seed in normal sea- 

 sons and still be vigorous enough to give a good yield of grain and 



