Disease-Resistant Oats for New Hampshire. 



The uniform oat nursery trials carried out at Durham with the cooper- 

 ation of the U.S.D.A. are not only a benefit to New Hampshire but are gain- 

 ing somewhat of a reputation in the U.S.D.A. It seems that the humidity 

 found in southeastern New Hampshire gives rise to an abundance of oat 

 disease infections. 



Dr. Stanton, former Head U.S.D.A. Oat Investigator, made his first 

 visit to New England soon after the Durham oat nursery was established 

 in 1943. Since then, Dr. Coffman, in charge of the U.S.D.A. oat investiga- 

 tions, has visited the Durham plots twice. On his first visit, he found a trace 

 of stem rust that had not appeared in this section of the country before. Re- 

 cently, on the second inspection, Dr. Coffman found more disease in the 

 U.N.H. nursery than he had encountered before. 



Only two of the newest varieties showed marked resistance to disease 

 this past year. These varieties have only been released for testing and have 

 not been multiplied to an extent where seed is available for farmers. When 

 seed is available, New Hampshire farmers may experience greater yield re- 

 turns than when they changed from the old varieties to such varieties as 

 Clinton, Ajax, and Mohawk. 



In addition to the Durham trials, variety trials were carried on at 

 Lancaster and Claremont for both forage and grain yields. The Lancaster 

 yields always run high due to the lower mean temperature and less humidity 

 which results in less disease infection. 



L. J. Higgins 



New Potato Variety Popular with Both Consumer and Producer. 



Of the twenty-odd varieties that have been tested the last few years, 

 Kennebec is the most promising to date. It is a high-yielding variety and is 

 blight resistant, making it popular with the grower. This variety is also popu- 

 lar with the consumer because it is shallow-eyed, good for boiling and bak- 

 ing, and excellent for french fries. The Kennebec is also excellent for potato 

 chips and is already in demand by the rapidly growing potato chip industry. 



Another promising variety is as yet unnamed but is known as B 355-44. 

 This variety is high in starch like the Green Mountain, but is easier to grow 

 because it is not susceptible to blight and net necrosis. 



P. T. Blood 



Breeding for Better Legumes and Grasses. 



The work in improvement of smooth brome grass was begun this spring 

 with the establishment of a source nursery of about 2.200 plants representing 

 54 strains and varieties. It is expected that major emphasis will be placed on 

 obtaining resistance to the brown leaf spot organism. The self, open-pollinated, 

 and polycross progenies of these strains will be artificially inoculated with 

 this organism as well as studied in the field for disease reactions. 



A yield test of 10 varieties of brome grass was established at Colebrook 

 and Durham this year in three replications alone and three with ladino clover. 

 Both northern and southern types of brome grass were included to obtain 

 information as to the relative competition given to the associate legume. A 

 test of 5 synthetic strains of brome grass developed by Dr. Murphy of Cor- 

 nell was also seeded at Durham. 



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