190 THE SMALL GRAINS - 



recommended by the Svalof cereal breeders, and has been 

 described and advocated by the author and other Ameri- 

 can writers in various publications. It is so important 

 a part of farm operations, though rarely employed, and 

 so easily carried out, that it seems very desirable to give 

 here a description of the method. 



191. The seed plat. This plat should be located at 

 different parts of the farm every year or two years, 

 preferably in alternation with clover or other leguminous 

 crops. Just before harvest a field of a good, hardy, 

 standard variety, that has given the best results in the 

 locality, should be gone through and plants marked that 

 exhibit to the highest degree the special quality which 

 it is desired to increase, such as freedom from rust, fer- 

 tility of spike or panicle, or otherwise, and which are at 

 the same time at least as good as the average in other 

 respects. At harvest time enough of these marked plants 

 for sowing the plat should be cut with a sickle and, after 

 thrashing them by hand, the largest and most vigorous 

 seed selected for this purpose, by means of a screen or 

 even by hand picking. The plat should be sown early, 

 drilling it at the average rate to the acre for that crop. 

 Next season none of the field crop should be used for 

 seed, but in the same manner enough of the best plants 

 should be selected from this breeding plat for re-seeding 

 the plat and all the remainder used for sowing the general 

 crop. In each succeeding season the operation is repeated. 

 In this way seed is never taken from the general crop, 

 which cannot be given the same care as the small plat, 

 and there is a constant selection of seed which is more 

 and more rigid every year. Moreover, there is no extra 

 labor involved except the small amount required for seed 

 selection each year. Of course the seed plat should be 



