374 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



characters of the father plant are entirely neglected. Animal- 

 breeders, on the contrary, give more attention to the characters of 

 the male parent, and a great deal of improvement in ordinary herds 

 is accomplished by the introduction of improved blood through the 

 male. In plant-breeding it is desirable that the seed of the select 

 individuals be planted in a field by themselves. This insures that 

 only progeny of carefully selected plants will be planted near to- 



eather, and thus no ordinary stock will enter in as a contamination, 

 ne can be certain that each plant of the progeny is fertilized with 

 pollen from another similarly good plant, or at least from a plant 

 derived from good parentage. One difficulty, however, has been 

 experienced by plant-breeders in the case of plants which normally 

 cross-fertilize, in planting continuously their selected stock in such 

 isolated plots. If this method is continued year after year, it results 

 in fairly close inbreeding, which in the case of plants frequently 

 results in a loss of vitality and vigor. In animal-breeding it is ap- 

 parently the case that ordinarily with careful selection, there is no 

 noticeable effect from close inbreeding, and many of the most 

 famous animals have been produced as a result of the closest in-and- 

 inbreeding. In plants, however, it is possible to secure much closer 

 inbreeding than in the case of animals, as in many cases a plant can 

 be fertilized with its own pollen. (Cornell U. A. E. S. Bui. 

 41, 1908.) 



Fanning Mill for Selecting Seed, It has generally been as- 

 sumed that the separation of the light-weight and small grains from 

 eeed wheat would result in an improvement of the crop grown, not 

 only in quantity but in quality as well. An experiment was started 

 in 1900 for the purpose of testing the value of the heaviest grains of 

 seed wheat as separated by a wind blast, when compared with the 

 lightest. Two varieties have been used, Turkish Red, a hard winter 

 wheat, and Big Frame, a soft winter wheat. The machine used is 

 BO constructed that the wheat to be separated is delivered into an 

 upward wind blast. The lighter seeds are carried over by the wind 

 while the heavier fall against the blast into a receptacle below. 



A lot of wheat was separated into two equal portions, and desig- 

 nated the Lighter Half and the Heavier Half. The Lighter Half 

 was again separated, the lighter portion being known as the Lightest 

 Light. The Heavier Half was also separated and the Heaviest 

 Heavy secured. 



The same method has been followed each year. The crop from 

 the Lightest Light was separated into four parts according to weight, 

 and only the lightest fourth retained and the crop from the Heaviest 

 Heavy separated but only the heaviest fourth retained. To check 

 results another lot of wheat has been sown continuously without sep- 

 aration. In the season of 1904 the wheat was so poor, due to a severe 

 attack of wheat scab, that no separation was made, but the seed from 

 each plat was simply cleaned and sown. Results are recorded in the 

 following tables : 



