METHODS OF BREEDING SMALL GRAINS 113 



for the yearly field notes, a separate book being used for each 

 crop. The following illustrates the method of keeping records 

 for the year 1922. 



1921 HEIGHT, DATE OTHER 



NAME N.S.N. SOUHCE IN. HEADING FIELD 



NOTES 



Turkey X Odessa. . II-18-1 A-l-W 



After obtaining yield and taking notes on grain characters, the 

 yearly results are drawn off on 8J^ by 11 paper, summarized, and 

 filed for reference and further study. Only general notes are 

 taken, such as date heading, date mature, height in inches, 

 per cent, lodged, degree lodged, per cent, and kind of destructive 

 diseases, botanical characters, grain color, plumpness and quality, 

 weight per bushel, and yield. 



New Introductions. By means of new introductions the 

 breeder is enabled to obtain varieties or strains which have been 

 produced by other breeders, or native varieties from the original 

 home of the crop. There is no value in attempting to produce 

 a variety which is adapted to a particular condition if the quali- 

 ties desired are to be found in some variety already grown in 

 another locality or country. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has a trained 

 corps of workers who are constantly introducing new plant sorts 

 from foreign countries. At the present time the Office of Cereal 

 Investigations of the Bureau of Plant Industry acts as a medium 

 for the introduction of new varieties of small grains. Through 

 cooperation with this office, promising new introductions are 

 being tested in localities to which they seem adapted. 



In small grains no conclusion can be drawn from the first- 

 year test of a new introduction obtained from a widely different 

 climate. Often the seed does not give a high percentage of 

 germination or for some other reason the results secured are not 

 even indicative of the value of the introduction. The first year 

 the different introductions may well be grown in short rows. 

 The following year a rod-row of each new introduction may be 

 grown as a part of the regular crop breeding row trials, and yield 

 and other characters determined. Those which are at all promis- 

 ing by this test may then be placed in the regular row trials 

 and handled in the same manner as pure-line strains. After 

 two or three years those introductions which give results of 

 promise will be used as a basis for individual plant selection, 

 providing the introduction was not already a pure-line. 



