IMPROVEMENT OF OATS. 109 



adapted specially for brewing purposes, so he was able to sift out from a sample of barley 

 that was submitted to him not only the wheat seeds and all other classes of impurities, 

 but to determine the percentage of mixed varieties of barley. In this way he was able, 

 by a number of years of experimentation, to get barley remarkably constant in character 

 both as regards its malting properties and this correlated character of the ligule which 

 he called my attention to. And it does seem to me that any one who has an opportunity 

 of visiting Sweden, and many of us make Sweden the place for resort in the summer time, 

 will find Dr. Nilsson's breeding station a most remarkable and instructive example of 

 what Swedes are doing in this line. 



W. M. Hays: Having origii\ated a good many varieties of oats, I don't know how 

 many, and having found that basing the variety on one or just two other plants, we have 

 no difficulty whatever with types such as have been shown us, it seems quite practicable 

 to assume that the oat is almost entirely self-pollinated, and to breed the oats you could 

 make hybrids and make new hybrids, basing them on one or on few other plants. 



The Chair: I have read with a great deal of interest the accounts of the work done 

 in Canada at the experimental farms to which Dr. Saunders has referred as contained 

 in the reports of their work, and, while there has been a great deal of interest, I have 

 been specially interested in the reports on oats. It appears to me that there may be 

 very great improvement on the lines indicated. 



