DIGEST OF STATE REPORTS. 429 



selected product of these plants was the second spring sown m drills 

 and kept separate by numbered stakes. Of this experiment the writer 

 says: 



Aa tho plants grew luxuriantly and tillered freely, I counted on a rapid increase of 

 my stock of these new varieties, which, judging from the character they exhibited the 

 previous year, would, beyond question, bo valuable gaina to agriculture. But aa the 

 heada issued from the sheath of the upper leaf, great waa my astonishment and dismay 

 to observe among tho plants of each class a wide diversity of forms. There were heads 

 of various lengths and of many forms; there were awnless heads, and heada bearded 

 in every degree. As the other characters, those belonging to the kernel, developed it 

 became manifest that the several characters of both original types were jostling 

 together in complete confusion. Reversion was playing its part, and, struggling 

 against inheritance, was gaining for certain characters the ascendency in one plant, 

 while in another it was giving the advantage to those quite different. It waa appar- 

 ently seeking to resolve the hybridity I had effected, and to carry back a part of the 

 plants to one parent form and a part to the other. That it did not in some instances 

 completely succeed in this, showing me from this union resolved the Black Sea and the 

 Golden Drop pure again, I cannot deny. Usually, however, it failed to gather up again 

 all the characters peculiar to either type, so effectually had hybridization segi-egated 

 them and dispersed them through the direct offspring of the cross, the j>lants of the 

 previous or tirst year, and was compelled to leave them scattered irrecoverably and 

 entering without law into new combinations innumerable. 



When I saw this medley among my crosses I relinquished my expectation of speedy 

 advantage from the experiment, and but for the aid -which selection offered me would 

 have remitted altogether a work involving so much of care and patience and yielding 

 Buch perplexity and disappointment. Selecting, however, a few of the most distinct 

 and promising forms, and beginning again the third year with the product of single 

 plants, as before, planting in separate drills, and if any sporting appeared in the drill, 

 as was almost invariably tho case, though the degree of variation liecame less and less, 

 Belecting from the drill in such event the best plant, tho ono which approached nearest 

 tho ideal appointedlor that drill, to yield seed for the nest year, I have succeeded, after 

 four years, in fixing tho character of several varieties. The sway of inheritance in 

 them is no longer disputed, and they come true from seed. No. 6 is a bald, red-chaff 

 variety, with its koruoi email, scarcely longer than broad, and very tawny in color. 

 No. 7 is bald ; red chaff"; kernel large and plump ; reddish. No. 9 is bald ; chaff' nearly 

 ■white; kernel largo, red, very plump. No. 13 is bearded; vrhite chaff'; kernel large, 

 oblong, rather light colored. No. 15 is bearded; red chaff; kernel largo, plump, dark. 

 No. Ibi is bearded ; white chaff'; kernel of good size, almost spherical ; not deeply col- 

 ored. Assorted from No. 15. Only three years ago th^ two sorts were contained in ono 

 kernel. 



It ia interesting to trace each of the several cha,racter8 of these six varieties to its 

 origin either in the Black Sea or the Golden Drop. I will add that all of these new varie- 

 ties are remarkably vigorous and productive, carrying heads from live to six inches ia 

 length. All have resisted mildew or rust the past year. 



WISCONSIN. 



The annual report of the Secretary of the Wisconsin State Agricult- 

 ural Society, for the year 1874-'75, contains, in addition to the routine 

 and business transactions of the association, a full report of the proceed- 

 ings of the State agricultural convention held in January, 1875, and 

 numerous interesting and valuable papers on subjects of special interest 

 to the farmers of the Northwest. 



Secretary E'ield, in his preliminary report to the governor of the State, 

 says that the season, as compared with the past five years, has been one 

 of general prosperity among those engaged in the varied branches ot 

 agriculture, except, perhaps, the growers of wheat. Throughout tho 

 State the season seemed to be unfavorable to the production of this 

 cereal. The greatest loss was from the chinch-bug; in some localities 

 they entirely destroyed the crop. Much depression was consequently 

 caused in the large wheat-growiug districts, where, for years past, but 

 little else had been cultivated. All other i)roducts gave a full average 

 yield and commanded remunerative prices. 



The success of dairy boards of trade, as inaugurated and conducted 



