NATURAL WHEAT-RYE HYBRIDS OF 1918 
Nineteen First Generation Hybrids Found Growing in Wheat Plots on the U. S. 
Government Experimental Farm at Arlington. Vigorous Second Genera- 
tion Plants are now Being. Grown from a Portion of the Seed 
Crybe E. Leicuty 
U. S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
four natural wheat-rye hybrid plants 
found in 1914. Three of these were 
found growing in the wheat plots 
on the Arlington Experiment Farm, of 
the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, near Washington, D. C., and 
the fourth was sent me for identification 
from Tennessee. In each of the three 
following years, 1915, 1916, and 1917, 
one or two plants of this unusual hy- 
brid combination were found in the 
wheat plots on the Arlington Farm. 
All these plants found in the four years 
were of the F, generation, and all were 
compieteiy steriie, with the exception ot 
one kernel on one of the plants found 
in 1915. 
In 1918, Mr. William C. Eldridge and 
I found nineteen natural wheat-rye hy- 
brid plants on the Arlington Farm, and 
three were found by me in the wheat 
nursery at the Virginia Agricultural 
Experiment Station, Blacksburg, Va. 
A few other such hybrid plants may 
have escaped notice on the Arlington 
Farm, although all plots were carefully 
searched, and others possibly may have 
been destroyed by a laborer not familiar 
with their appearance who assisted in 
rogueing the wheat plots. 
The finding of so many of these hy- 
brids is believed to be a matter of sufh- 
cient interest to justify this record of 
their occurrence and this description of 
them. The plants are further note- 
worthy because such natural hybrids 
I: a previous article’ | have described 
1“Natural Wheat-rye Hybrids.” Journal Amer. Soc. Agron., 7: 
of wheat and rye apparently have been 
observed very infrequently. So far 
as I am aware, no one else in this 
country has reported in any  pub- 
lication the finding of one of them, 
but Prof. R. R. Childs recently showed 
me such a hybrid found by him on the 
farm of the State College of Agricul- 
ture, Athens, Ga. One or more such 
natural hybrids had also been found by 
him at that place in both the years 1916 
and 1917. In my previous article | 
cited? a possible record of such a hybrid 
that had been found by Miczynski. 
Since then I have come across the bare 
statement by H. Nilsson-Ehle* that he 
had twice seen a spontaneous occur- 
rence of the hybrid between wheat and 
rye in two varieties of winter wheat 
which had been pollinated by winter 
rye growing near by. 
WHEAT AND RYE TESTING METHODS 
AT ARLINGTON FARM 
It has been the custom for several 
years in the variety tests of wheat and 
rye at Arlington farm to sow the dif- 
ferent varieties of rye in plots, usually 
1 rod wide and 8 rods long (1/20 acre), 
separated 4 or 5 rods from each other. 
This method of sowing is followed in 
order to reduce the chances for cross- 
pollination between the different va- 
rieties. In the intervening spaces be- 
tween the rye plots different varieties 
of wheat are sown, usually in fortieth- 
acre plots, being separated from each 
209-216, 1915. 
2Fruwirth, C., Die Ziichtung der landwirtschaftlichen Kulturpflanzen, Band 4, pp. xvi 
+ 460. Berlin, 1910. 
3In Beitrage zur Pflanzenzucht, p. 59. Berlin, 1913. 
129 
