Methods of Breeding Nursery Wheat. 51 



universal rule, the stigma or female organ receiving the 

 pollen or male element from the anthers of the same 

 floret. Wheat thrives under this closest of close 

 breeding and when crosses are made, in many if not in' 

 most cases the average of the progeny is poorer than 

 the average of the parents. Darwin might well say 

 that wheat often seems to abhor crossing. His dictum 

 that plants and animals athor self or very close breed- 

 ing might more broadly cover the facts if stated in some 

 such form as follows : Plants and animals abhor radical 

 changes in their accustomed habits as to the closeness 

 or wideness of their relationships of parentage. Thus 

 in corn, where comparatively few of the flowers re- 

 ceive pollen from the same plant, self-fertilization- and 

 presumably breeding between close relationships great- 

 ly reduce the productiveness of the plants, while close 

 fertilized species are not injured even by self fertiliza- 

 tion. Because wheat is close-fertilized it is peculiarly 

 adapted to use in illustrating some problems in breeding 

 and is proving a useful living organism in developing 

 statistical methods in breeding and in studying some 

 problems in heredity. 



To study individual plants of many species of plants 

 and to use them in large numbers in pedigreed breeding 

 and to carry on statistical studies with plants a method 

 of planting and a system of records have been devised. 

 The seeds of wheat and other small grains are planted 

 in beds 5x42 feet in area. In case of wheat the hills 

 are 4x4 inches apart and one seed in a place, or two or 

 three seeds are planted and then thinned to one plant 

 in a hill. In case the viability of the seeds has been 

 impaired planting two or three seeds insures a full 

 stand, but great care is necessary to thin to one plant in 

 a hill, as hills with two plants would wrongfully be 

 chosen as the best in the plot. During the past eleven 

 years approximately a million plants of the various 

 field crops have^thus been grown individually in hills, 

 and from necessity a system of planting and record has 

 been evolved. The 250,000 plants now in the field crop 



