Department of Experimental Plant-Breeding. 29 



large grains and give promise of value but they will require to be 

 tested through several years before conclusions can be drawn. 



The work on the second problem was started in a small way in the 

 fall of 1907, when plats were grown of the Virginia Gray Winter oat 

 from seed grown in Virginia and Connecticut, the seed from the latter 

 State being secured from the selection plats of the Department of 

 Agriculture. Plats were planted on two distinct types of soil, and in 

 each case a considerable percentage of the plants survived the winter, 

 enough to produce at least over half a crop. In an experiment of this 

 kind, nature is the main selecting agent, those plants which survive 

 being considered to be the most hardy. About 300 of the best indi- 

 viduals that survived the winter have been selected for separate plant- 

 ing and general plats will be planted with the remainder of the seed. 



Wheat experiments. — In the fall of 1907, 126 varieties of wheat were 

 planted in small test plats and head-to-row plantings were made of 

 select heaas of a number of varieties. The first work necessary here 

 is to determine the best foundation stocks by a somewhat careful study 

 of the varieties. The yields in the summer of 1908 have given some 

 indication of the best strains, and a considerable number of individual 

 and head selections of such supposed good strains will be planted in 

 the fall of 1908. 



Potato investigations. 



Potato-growing is a very important industry in the State and in 

 recent years very little work has been done to keep the varieties up 

 to a high state of productivity. From the great variability of the crop 

 the majority of the varieties grown would seem to be much mixed 

 and lack breeding. It is important that some reliable and simple 

 method of selection or breeding be devised which is adapted to the 

 use of growers generally. Such a method, it is thought, based on the 

 use of the tuber as a unit was devised by the writer in conjunction 

 with Professor Norton and published during the year in Bulletin 251 

 of this Station. Experiments to test this method more fully were 

 started in a small way in the spring 1908, using several well-known 

 varieties. 



The extent of bud-variation in the potato and the use to which the 

 selection of such variations can be put in breeding unproved sorts is 

 a question of importance, both from the practical and the scientific 

 standpoint, and some studies of this nature have been started. 



