340 REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. 
of heads per plant from the selected seed in 1903, and from the seeds 
produced from the selected plants in 1904 to be as follows :— 
Average Number of Heads per Plant 
Crops = - 
1903 1904 
Six-rowed Barley (Mandscheuri) . : ; | 10°8 13°5 
Two-rowed Barley (Chevalier) . : . ; 26°3 31-7 
White Oats (Siberian). . : : : 13-6 18-4 
Black Oats (Joanette) . . ; ° . 27:6 46°9 
As the seeds were planted exactly the same distance apart in each of 
those two years, it is quite probable that the influence of the selection 
made in 1903 is largely the cause of the increase in the average number 
of heads per plant in the crop of 1904 as compared with that of the 
previous year. 
Improved Strains of Leading Varieties of Spring Grain.—Upwards 
of one hundred selected strains of leading varieties of winter wheat and 
spring grains were grown in the experimental grounds on uniform plots 
in 1903. Fifty-six of the plots contained selected strains of spring crops 
described previously. Some of these strains are promising, as they 
indicate a greater yield of grain per acre than was obtained from seed 
produced from plants which had not been specially selected. The table 
which follows gives the highest yields per acre obtained in 1905 from seed 
resulting from the plants selected in 1903 as previously described. In 
comparison with these yields are those produced from selected seed from 
plants which were not specially selected. 
Tons of Straw per Acre Bushels of Grain per Acre 
from Selected from Selected 
Crops es Bein RA ASL 2 a at 
Seeds Plants Seeds Plants 
Six-rowed Barley (Mandscheuri) 1:8 2-0 68°4 78'S 
Two-rowed Barley (Chevalier) 3 2-1 2°4 44:8 58°6 
Hulless Barley (Guy Mayle) . é 16 2:0 47°3 48°6 
White Oats (Siberian) : ‘ 2°3 2:1 86:1 91-3 
Black Oats (Joanette) - 21 19 19:3. |= 89.0 
Spring Wheat (Wild Goose) . 1:4 1:8 29:7 | 36-4 
Although there is a slight irregularity in the yield of straw per acre, 
it will be seen that in every case the yield of grain from seed obtained 
from selected plants was higher than that produced from seed obtained 
from plants which were not selected. 
The Production of one Seed Grain in a Period of two and a half 
Years.—As previously stated, the most promising plant of the thousands 
of plants of each of six varieties of spring grain grown in 1903 was 
saved and the seed produced was all sown by hand in 1904, from which 
crop the grain was carefully saved and was sown with an ordinary 
grain drill in the spring of 1905. The following table represents the 
yield of grain in 1903, and the yield of both straw and grain in 1904 
and in 1905 :— 
