128 



BREEDING CROP PLANTS 



WHEAT SELECTIONS 



A new winter wheat, Kanred (Jardine, 1917), discovered at 

 the Kansas Experiment Station as a result of testing out 554 

 head selections made from Crimean (No. 1,435 of the Office of 

 Cereal Investigations, United States Department of Agriculture) 

 is a rather striking example of what may be accomplished by this 

 method of work. As an average of six years' tests, Kanred yielded 

 4.6 and 5.2 bu. more than Turkey and Kharkov respectively. 

 These varieties gave best results under Kansas conditions until 

 Kanred was found. 



Table XXVII shows a comparison in yield between commer- 

 cial varieties and selections made from them (Love and Craig, 

 1918a) at the Cornell Station. 



TABLE XXVII. THREE-YEAR AVERAGE YIELD PER ACRE OF WINTER WHEAT 

 VARIETIES AND SELECTIONS MADE FROM THEM 



Varietal selections 



Three-year i 



average yield i Gain, bu. 

 per acre, bu. 



Red Rock winter wheat, which is highly satisfactory in Michi- 

 gan, comes from a red seed picked out of a white wheat (Ply- 

 mouth Rock) (Spragg and Clark, 1916). Here we have an 

 example of selecting and increasing an individual obviously differ- 

 ent from the type in which it occurred. The red seed may have 

 been due to one of several causes, admixture, natural crossing, 

 or a mutation. Whatever the cause, selection immediately 

 isolated a wheat which was different in appearance and which 

 proved valuable. On a percentage basis, the average yield of 

 Plymouth Rock at the Michigan Experiment Station during the 

 period 1912-1915 is 73.4. The yield of Red Rock for the same 

 period is taken as 100. 



Besides yield and quality other characters of economic impor- 



