381 



there a red oats, for wliicli it is claimed that it is proof against mildew, 

 at its best it is so inferior in quality as scarcely to be entitled to the 

 character of oats. It has been pressed upon the Department, b^* south- 

 ern farmers, that it should be procured for distribution, in consequence 

 of which the best sample of it was sought for and purchased from near 

 Selma, Ala., and after subjecting it to au additional winnowing it 

 weighed but 28 pounds to the bushel. Unless it be upon some of the 

 highlands of North Carolina or Georgia, it is not worth while to waste 

 time and labor upon the effort to procure a paying crop of oats in the 

 Southern States. Although the Department has distributed among 

 southern farmers the red oats procured at Selma, its use is not 

 recommended. 



THE SELECTION AND PLANTING OF SEED. 



This Department has taken much plains to impress upon the farmers 

 of the countrj^ the great value of a careful selection of seed. In Eng- 

 land experiments have been made in the cultivation of wheat which 

 have produced the most remarkable and, indeed, almost incredible 

 results, from selections for a series of years. These experiments have 

 been conducted by Maj. F. F. Hallett at his Manor Farm, Kemp Town. 

 On the 4th of June, 1874, Major Hallett read a paper before the Mid- 

 laud Farmers' Club at Birmingham, expounding his " pedigree system'" 

 as applied to cereal crops, which created a wide and deep interest in 

 agricultural and other circles, and has since been a prolific topic of dis- 

 cussion. The author of this system says : 



The plan of selection wliich I x^ursne is as follows : A grain produces a plant, con- 

 sisting of many ears. I plant the grains from these ears in such a manner that each 

 ear occupies a row by itself, each oi' its grains occupying a hole in this row ; the holes 

 being twelve inches apart every way. At harvest, after the most careful study and 

 comparison of the plants from all these grains, I select the finest one, which I accept 

 as a proof that its parent grain was the best of all, under the peculiar circumstances 

 of that season. This process is repeated annuallj', starting every year with the proved 

 best grain, although the verification of this suiieriority is not obtained until the fol- 

 lowing harvest. 



In illustration of these principles of selection, I now give the following results, due 

 to their influence alone — as the kind of seed, the land, and the system of culture em- 

 ployed were precisely the same for every plant for four consecutive years ; neither was 

 any manure used, nor any artificial means of fostering the plants resorted to. 



TahJe showiiHj ihe importance of each addilional generation of selection. 



Thus, by means of repeated selection alone, the length of the ears has been doubled, 

 their contents nearly trebled, and the " tillering" power of the seed increased five-fold. 



