58 DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS. 



being largely sterile, and in no case sufficiently productive to be 

 valuable. 



The coming year the promising hybrids that have been secured will 

 be grown, tested, and selected in the regions for which they are thought 

 to be best adapted. The work on the production of a prolific hominy 

 variety, which promises to yield valuable results soon, will be vigor- 

 ously pushed, and it is believed that one or two years' selection of 

 some of the sorts in isolated patches will justify their distribution for 

 more extensive trial by farmers. The production of races richer in 

 nitrogen requires careful chemical work, and it is planned to make 

 arrangements to have this feature of the work taken up the present 

 year. As demonstrated by the Illinois and Kansas experiment sta- 

 tions, the gross character of the kernel indicates what may be expected, 

 and attention has been given, as far as possible, to these character- 

 istics in all our work up to the present time. 



Wheat. — During the year breeding experiments with wheat have 

 been carried on at Halstead, Kans. , the heart of the wheat belt, and in 

 Ellis County in that State, with a view of developing drought-resistant 

 and hardy wheats, many of the best Russian wheats being used as a 

 basis for the production of the latter feature. In addition to the crosses 

 already made, about 300 varieties of Russian wheats and about 200 

 varieties of macaroni wheats were tested. A great deal of cooperative 

 work in this line has been taken up with the experiment stations in 

 different wheat-growing States, and extensive experiments are now 

 under way at the Texas, Kansas, South Dakota, Minnesota, and Mary- 

 land stations. In the experiment at the Minnesota station special 

 attention is being given to the breeding of wheats that will yield a 

 higher percentage of nitrogen, and some very promising results in 

 other directions also have already been obtained. During the coming 

 season experiments on a large scale will be made for the purpose of 

 producing varieties of greater nutritive value, disease and drought 

 resistant, and hardier and better yielding than the present varieties. 



Alkali-resistant plants. — Probably with no crops does breeding prom- 

 ise more valuable and far-reaching results than with those which might 

 be grown on alkali soils. On such soils the great mass of plants finally 

 die, but here and there some seem to withstand the injurious effects 

 of alkali and mature successfully, and from this fact it is inferred that 

 by careful selection from such plants for several years new strains 

 resistant to alkali will be obtained. The Bureau of Soils has demon- 

 strated that ordinary alfalfa will not grow successfully in a soil con- 

 taining six-tenths of 1 per cent of alkali, but one of the agricultural 

 explorers of the Bureau of Plant Industry discovered an Algerian 

 alfalfa growing normally in a soil containing 4 per cent of alkali. 

 Again, Algerian agriculturists have bred varieties of grapes which not 

 only grow on alkali soils where ordinary varieties succumb, but do 

 not take up the alkali in sufficient quantity to injure the wine made 

 from them, and French vineyardists have bred varieties which will 

 grow successfully on strong lime soils. In laboratory cultures of 

 lupines with alkaline mixtures of various strengths, very great differ- 

 ences have been observed in the ability of different individuals to 

 withstand injury from alkali. These facts justify the belief that by 

 a systematic course of selection alkali-resistant strains of some of our 

 agricultural crops can be secured, and during the present season an 

 assistant has been giving especial attention to this problem and has 

 started alkali-resistant selections with wheat, barley, and alfalfa. 



