IMPKOVED STKAINS OF BOOTS 63 



stock seed is available than it was in the case of the previous 

 series. This will not only benefit the farmers, but will enable 

 seed growers to get a judgment on the result of their work in 

 improving their strain two years sooner than when, as in earlier 

 series, the trade seed was examined. 



The working scheme has been fixed as follows : The com- 

 petition is to be for four years. Samples of stock seed are 

 called up to be cultivated for two years on the seven stations 

 and three branch stations, each sample to be cultivated on at 

 least five stations in the way described above. At the end of 

 the second year the results are calculated and the samples 

 classified according to yield. The samples that come in the 

 lower half are then discarded, and only the samples in the upper 

 half are to be further examined. For each sample in the upper 

 half two new samples are called for from the owners of the strain, 

 viz. one sample of trade seed cultivated from the stock seed 

 already examined and one sample of the new generation of 

 stock seed. These samples are then to be cultivated for two 

 years in succession, when the result of the four years' cultivation 

 will be published. 



The strains placed in Class I. by the first four years' com- 

 petition will have the Eoman figure VI., and stock seed of these 

 strains will be available in the spring of 1924, and trade seed 

 with figure VI. will be on the market in 1926. By that time 

 strains IV. should be considered superannuated and no longer 

 reliable. 



As has been mentioned, seed from the best firms in other 

 countries have been bought and cultivated in competition with 

 home-grown strains at several of the competitions. They 

 have been obtained from firms in France, England, Scotland, 

 Germany, and a few from other countries, and it is intended for 

 the future to continue this cultivation of the best strains to be 

 obtained from other countries. If better strains could be 

 obtained from abroad, i.e. strains which would yield a greater 

 quantity of total solids per acre when grown in Denmark than 

 what was yielded by the home-grown strains, such foreign 

 strains would then be adopted for cultivation in Denmark. 

 Only once, since 1889, viz. in 1900, was a Swede, a Bangholm 

 from Edinburgh, found to be superior to Danish strains, but 



