CEREAL IMPROVEMENT SELECTION 193 



Victoria White, Hallett Pedigree Red, Hallett Nursery 

 Red, and Hallett Pedigree Golden Drop. 



196. Work of Hays at Minnesota Experiment Station. 

 -The best example in this country of pure-line cereal 



selection on an extensive scale is the work of W. M. 

 Hays (1899) at the Minnesota Experiment Station, which 

 began in 1888. Valuable as were the Fife and Bluestem 

 wheats already being grown, the yield was unsatisfac- 

 tory. Several hundred varieties were obtained from other 

 parts of the United States and from foreign countries, 

 but none were found to be better than those already 

 under cultivation. Therefore " wheat breeding was re- 

 sorted to, that the best available wheats might be im- 

 proved and others be originated." The field methods 

 employed are discussed elsewhere (202). Out of thou- 

 sands of new strains produced, two were widely distrib- 

 uted and have become well known. Minnesota numbers 

 were given to each of these new strains, a practice not 

 to be commended. 



197. Minnesota selections. Minn. No. 163 wheat is 

 a selection from Power Fife. In 8 years' test it averaged 

 5.2 bushels an acre more than Haynes Bluestem. By 

 1903 it was planted on more than 100,000 acres. Minn. 

 No. 169 was selected from Haynes Bluestem. It yielded 

 4.2 bushels an acre more than the parent variety in an 

 8 years' test. Fifteen hundred bushels were grown on the 

 University farm in 1902, in which year it was distributed. 

 The following year, it is estimated 150,000 bushels were 

 grown. The mother plants of these new varieties were 

 grown in 1892. Minn. No. 2 rye is a selection from 

 Swedish rye begun in 1897. It was selected for hardiness 

 during winter killing of the parent variety, and distributed 

 in 1908 as a new commercial sort. Minn. No. 26 oat is 



o 



