Macoun: Plant Breeding in Canada 403 



much needed in certain parts of Canada. Comparatively little work has been 



Selections for earliness have been made done in breeding ornamental plants, 



with tomatoes, beans, peas and corn but some progress has been made with 



particularly. The Alacrity tomato and roses, sweet peas, geraniums, petunias 



Early Malcolm corn are two selections and columbine. Two worthy varieties 



which have been most disseminated, of roses originated at Ottawa by the late 



During the past two years considerable Dr. Wm. Saunders are Mary Arnott 



work has been done in cross-breeding and Agnes, the former a brilHant crimson 



corn, the Squaw (flint). Early Adams scarlet cross between Rosa rugosa and 



(dent), and Early Malcolm (sweet) Prince Camille de Rohan, the latter, 



being mainly used as parents. The pale yellow with a salmon tinge, a cross 



Squaw corn matures in districts where between Rosa rugosa and Persian Yellow, 



the nights are cool and the season with- Some interesting and attractive Fo 



out frost is short, whereas sweet varie- seedlings are growing from a cross made 



ties will not do so. It is hoped by between Berberis thunbergii and Ber- 



crossing to obtain sweet varieties which bens vulgaris purpurea. 



mil mature anywhere the Squaw does. There is a specialist in the Horti- 



Many interesting and promising crosses cultural Division who devotes his whole 



have been obtained. time to plant breeding. 



Plant Breeding in Maryland 



Plant breeding at the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station is on a large 

 scale, both as regards practical problems and the theoretical problems which it is 

 attempting to solve. Mendelism is being investigated in cowpeas, in connection 

 with selection; wheat, oats and barley are being cross-bred and selected, corn is 

 being bred and studied in a series of experiments which has now been under way 

 for ten years, mutations are being systematically sought in the cereals. A new 

 \'ariety of pear of good quality and resistant to blight is sought by crossing, par- 

 ticularly Kieffer by Seckel; apples are being bred in a similar way, to produce a 

 good, early, red apple of good cooking quality. Grape hybrids include most of 

 the hardy American species as well as the Malaga type of southern Europe, Vitis 

 vinifera. Strawberries, celery, tomatoes, muskmelons, Irish potatoes, cabbage are 

 also the subjects of projects destined to furnish more productive or disease resistant 

 varieties and also to yield information about the laws of heredity. Finally, the 

 station is doing genetic research with one kind of material which has been very 

 little worked — namely, the castor bean (Ricinus communis), where the variation 

 and heredity of individuals propagated from different branches and different flowers 

 is being investigated. The production of ornamental plants, a work usually left 

 to commercial nurserymen, has been undertaken to the extent of breeding improved 

 strains of dahlia and Black Eyed Susan. 



Plant Breeding in Michigan 



A number of superior varieties of wheat — produced by the isolation of pure lines — 

 have been put in the trade by the Michigan Experiment Station, as have two lines 

 of oats. A study of the inheritance of earliness in oats has been running since 

 1911. Investigations of a more technical genetic nature are making in corn and 

 wheat. A line of navy beans has been selected which is resisting blight to the 

 extent of 8 or 10 bushels more to the acre than ordinary commercial strains. Alfalfa 

 breeding has been carried through five generations, the object being to produce 

 strains that will not only be hardy and productive in Michigan, with its severe 

 cHmate, but will bear seed under such conditions. A considerable degree of success 

 has alreadv been attained . 



