140 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



The author maintains that the older, so-called methodical system of i)lant breeding 

 has not and can not accomplish what has been expected of it. Selection in groups, 

 no matter if regulated by the most exact methods, can but rarely lead to fixed char- 

 acteristics, i. e., to true improvement, and never to well-characterized, wholly new 

 varieties. The breeding of agricultural plants must be built on nature's own laws of 

 heredity and variation, which, among other things, point to the single living plant 

 individual as the only true unit with which we have to reckon and to work. The 

 work of plant breeding must be planned in a scientific manner and be founded on 

 purely botanical characteristics, wliich, on the one hand, constitute the most certain 

 guides to the detection of essential and hereditary qualities in the mother plants, and, 

 on the other hand, endow the new varieties thus bred with the dignity of independ- 

 ent botanical species, raised above a modifying influence of changing conditions of 

 climate and soil. Special, well-equipped, scientific, and practical institutions are 

 required for the advancement of agricultural plant pi'oduction, which, taking the 

 existing crops of the country or of a geograj^hical plant zone as a basis, must breed 

 new, improved races adapted to the needs of the different regions and different 

 requirements. The work of maintaining the standard of these varieties by means of 

 systematic selection falls to the farmer and the seedsman. — f. w. w<ill. 



Types of green and yellow rye and dark and light colored Squarehead 

 wheat grown under fi.eld conditions, M. Fischer ( Filhlinf/'s Landw. Zig., 50 (1901), 

 Nos. 19, pp. 684-692;. SO, jjp. 7-27-734; ahs. in Centbl. Ayr. Chem., SI {1902), No. 4, P- 

 S58). — A difference in the development of the plants from green and yellow grains 

 of rye was plainly shown, although the seed was of a common origin. The plants 

 resulting from the yellow grains required, in addition to an application of nitroge- 

 nous fertilizers given in the fall, a heavier application of phosphoric acid than the 

 plants grown from the green-colored seed. The special characteristic of the plants 

 from the green grains was their greater hardiness. In the test with breeding types 

 of Squarehead wheat the dark-colored seed i-epresented the hard and glass\^ grains, 

 and the light-colored seed the soft and mealy wheat. The principal result from this 

 test was that the plants from the light-colored grains showed the greatest hardiness. 



Alfalfa pasture in Argentina, B. W. Snow {Amer. Agr.{mid. ed.), 69 {1902), No. 

 3, p. 82). — A brief description of alfalfa pasture in Argentina, and a comparison of 

 the results with pasturing on native grasses. It is stated that over 4 acres of natural 

 jiasture are reijuired to sustain one animal, while less than 1 acre of alfalfa pasture 

 produces the same result. 



Breeding pure forms of Bohemian barley, J. Nolo {Deut. Landw. I'resse, 29 

 {1902), Noi^. 28, pp. 239, 240, Jigs. 8; 29, p. 248, figs. ^).— This article is a detailed 

 description of the method of originating new forms of barley as practiced in a com- 

 mercial way. 



Hungarian and Virginia dent corn varieties, L. Kiessling {Dent. Lnndw. 

 Presse, 29 {1902), No. 1. p. 4). — A comparison of these varieties shows that Hungarian 

 dent corn is earlier than the Virginia, but not so productive. 



A chemical study of the Sea Island cotton seed, F. S. Shiver {South Carolina 

 Sta. Ihd. 68, pp. 90, fig. 1). — As distinguished from the Upland varieties the Sea Island 

 cotton has a small black seed, which is almost entirely denuded of lint in the process 

 of ginning. Two varieties of Sea Island cotton seed were studied extensively as to their 

 composition with reference to fertilizing and food constituents, and the results com- 

 pared with data for Upland and Egyptian seed. On an average the seed of the finest 

 Sea Island cotton weighed 0.0971 gm. and that of the coarsest, 0.0966 gm. On an 

 average the kernels constituted 59.58 per cent, and the hulls 40.42 per cent of the 

 seed. Taking the average of three mills, the yield of oil was 42.6 gal. per ton, or 75.8 

 per cent of the total oil present. At 23.6° C. the refractive index of the oil examined 

 was 1.4718, the saponification equivalent, 215. The average composition of the seed 

 and its parts is given as follows; 



