PLANT BREEDING. 35 



intensive breeding work. A further interesting fact emerging 

 from the trials is the considerable difference that exists between 

 commercial and indigenous {i.e., native) strains of all herbage 

 plants, and there is a general promise of being able to secure 

 considerably improved strains, at any rate in grazing plants, 

 by the use of indigenous forms. The indigenous plants are 

 generally more leafy than the commercial species, and have a 

 much greater stooling, or tillering, caf)acity, thus giving longer 

 and more continuous grazing. 



In the improvement of grazing pastures, the main object 

 to keep in view is to produce strains which wiU mature earlier 

 and continue to supply food late in the season; in other words, 

 a longer grazing season is wanted. There is usually plenty of 

 keep in May and June, but the shortage is most felt in March 

 and early April and again in October and November. Thus the 

 ideal grazing pasture would include early-maturing plants giving 

 a plentiful supply of food in March, and late-maturing plants 

 continuing the grazing season into the late autumn. Possibly 

 this ideal will never be obtained from a single seeds mixture, 

 and it may prove better for the farmer to sow down his pasture 

 fields with individual species, or limited mixtures, which will 

 come into maximum bearing at different periods. This, however, 

 is no more than a surmise, but it is a question under critical 

 investigation at the Station, 



For the present the Station is concentrating attention on 

 the most important of the constituents of the ordinary seeds 

 mixture, namely, cocksfoot, the rye grasses, tall oat grass, the 

 fescues and red clover. For each of these species, hundreds 

 of strains occur in nature through the continued process of 

 cross-pollination that goes on under natural conditions. As a 

 preliminary to breeding work, therefore, it has been necessary 

 for the Station to collect as large a " living museum " as possible 

 of natural strains. All possible sources, both in this country 

 and abroad, have been drawn upon in making this collection. 

 The number of individual plants of cocksfoot, rye grass, tall 

 oat grass and the fescues which are being studied is nearly 5,000, 

 and upwards of 3,000 clover plants are under investigation. 

 Moreover, as the plants are cross-pollinated in nature, it is 

 necessary, before critical breeding experiments can be com- 

 menced, to carry out a series of preliminary trials to find out 

 the "habits" of the various types ; to ascertain, for example, 

 if a cross-pollinated plant can be self-pollinated ; if not, how 

 it can best be cross-pollinated; what time of the day dees 

 the plant flower, and so on. To answer such questions as these, 

 over 300 plants were grown separately in pollen-proof cages in 



