Department of Experimental Plant-Breeding. xlvii 



parative value would be increased in this way also. Some of thi. 

 high-yielding desirable types are at least two weeks earlier in ma- 

 turing than others, so that they give evidence of furnishing early 

 and late maturing varieties. Will these types reproduce themselves ? 

 If so, we have here, apparently, the foundation of many valuable 

 new races. 



It was found by an examination of the progenies from open- 

 fertilized plants that seed thus produced gave very variable plants. 

 The plants of such progenies were scarcely more uniform than 

 plants grown from a general lot of seed, the variation being due 

 probably to cross-fertilization. By bagging heads during the flow- 

 ering period it was found that self-fertilized seed could be obtained, 

 and in the fall of 1908 seedlings from such self-fertilized seed of 

 a large number of these different types were plantd in test rows. 



Observations on the self-fertilized seedlings made this summer 

 show that in very many instances, if not in the majority of cases, 

 the various types have transmitted their peculiarities in marked 

 degree. This is a fact of great importance. We know now that we 

 have the beginnings of many different races of timothy, some of 

 them doubtless far superior for cultivation to our ordinary timothy. 



In the last report attention was called to the possibility of secur- 

 ing varieties of timothy resistant to rust, a disease which is becom- 

 ing very serious all over the State. Apparently owing to the dry- 

 ness of this summer, the rust has not been very abundant, but it 

 is of interest to record that the types which were resistant last year 

 have shown the same resistance this year and that the most sus- 

 ceptible varieties of last year have been badly rusted this year. 

 Purely by accident it happened that one of the most susceptible 

 varieties to rust was planted immediately by the side of one of the 

 varieties which has proved a very high yielder. The one rusted 

 very badly even in this good year and gave a very light yield, while 

 the other showed no rust whatever, and gave an average yield of 

 1. 14 pounds per plant, which is a very exceptional yield on our soils. 

 It has not yet been determined whether these rust resistant plants 

 will transmit the rust resistant character, but judging from the evi- 

 dence furnished by other plants, it is thought that they will. 



Corn breeding experiments, — Experiments are being made in the 

 selection of corn at three places, namely, with Funk's 90 Day at 

 Ballston Lake, Reid's Yellow Dent at Utica, and Pride of the North 

 at Aurora. These experiments have as their object the production 

 of early strains of these races which will be adapted to cultivaticr 



