CEREAL BREEDING IN KANSAS. 



181 



process of selection in the case of wheat is scientifically accurate, therefore, or 

 will yield permanent results which does not take account of the possible exist- 

 ence of these mutation forms and set about to discover and isolate them in pure 

 cultures, which can then be compared with respect to all the desired char- 

 acters sought for in wheat and only the most desirable and advantageous 

 forms be retained. 



Where selection is practiced at all by growers it usually consists simply 

 in the choice of large well developed heads out of the mass of the ri[:cned 

 wheat plants. This method, of course, ignores the plant as an individual. It 

 is necessary, therefore, after securing a pure strain, botanically speaking, to 

 enter upon a very extensive process of selection of individual plants from 

 among large numbers, grown in such a way as to enable each individual to 

 attain to its maximum development. In this way what are known as the 

 "tillering" qualities of the different individual plants, that is, their tendency to 

 send up numbers of grain-bearing shoots from stolons, will be revealed. The 

 collection at random of occasional large, well-developed heads ignores the pos- 

 sibility that such heads may be borne on plants markedly inferior in tillering 

 capacity. As a basis for selection, therefore, we have this year planted our 

 choicest varieties in nursery plots, in which the plants stand four inches apart 

 each way. All of the seed thus planted has been carefully selected by hand, 

 all but the largest and heaviest seeds being rejected. 



An example of a search for an advantageous mutation form or sub-species, 

 supposed to vary in the direction of increased flowering capacity, may be in- 

 teresting. This year in the field of a supposed pure strain of Pedigree Early 

 Genesee Giant (Kansas No. 147) close examination discovered seventy-two 

 heads having a decided "club" tendency. It is a well-known fact that the 

 extraordinary yields of wheat on the Pacific Coast are due in considerable 

 measure to the fact that the wheats there grown are what are locally known 

 as the "club" wheats, that is to say, wheats having the tendency to develop in 

 the upper spikelets of the head five or more grains instead of the two or three 

 usually found in our local winter wheats. This tendency results in a swollen 

 or clubbed appearance of the head. The Pacific Coast club wheats, however, 

 are not hardy varieties with us, and, therefore, are not available for intro- 

 duction into our district. We must, therefore, look to the development of 

 clubbed tendencies among our native winter wheats. In our two best hard and 

 soft strains, Turkey and Zimmerman, this tendency does not appear at all. 

 It does show itself in a number of our velvet chaff wheats and in the No. 147 

 just mentioned. Eleven of the heads of this number which showed the clubbed 

 tendency most strikingly were selected, and a permanent record of their appear- 

 ance preserved in photographs. From each one of these heads the spikelets 

 were then carefully removed, from the base to the apex, in the order of their 

 attachment to the axis. In each spikelet the number of flowers and the num- 

 ber of grains produced were tabulated, and are graphically indicated as illus- 

 trated in the accompanying diagrams. From these it will be seen that there 

 is a marked tendency in certain heads toward the development of five and 

 six flowers on the spikelet. In head No. 4, for example, spikelets 4, S, 6. 7, 8, 

 9, ID, II, 12 and 13 — ten in all out of a total number of twenty-three spikelets 

 growing on the head — produced six flowers. In seven cases five out of the six 



