Methods of Breeding Nursery Wheat. 53 



border plants and are cut off with a hand sickle and 

 sheep shears and discarded before taking the harvesting 

 notes. As many of the plots consist of a hundred plants 

 of one generation the removal of the side and crosr 

 border rows causes the little plots forty inches square 

 or the longer plots to stand out distinctly to be judged 

 and notes made of each plot as a definite unit, often a 

 fraternity group from a single mother plant: Fig. i 

 illustrates the method of placing plants in hills and 

 grouping them in beds. Originally these plots were 

 planted by hand in cross marks made in the 'soil, a plan 

 still used in case of plants which must be planted a foot 

 or more apart. A mechanical method of planting- has 

 been in course of evolution for some years and has been 

 so far perfected that it saves half the immense labor of 

 planting. With the machine illustrated in Fig. 2 the 

 seeds are planted very regularly in the squares at a 

 uniform depth and so rapidly that with one or more 

 machines large plant-breeding nurseries may be put in 

 early in the spring. In. Fig. 3 the machine is shown 

 covered with a tent put on simply to prevent the wind 

 from scattering the seeds. This makes it possible to 

 plant the wheat, oats, barley, flax and other species 

 which are planted in close hills during windv days. 

 The still days are then available for the early planting 

 of timothy, clover, alfalfa and other small seeds ^-bich 

 are planted far apart and by hand. Thus all seeds for 

 early planting in the season are gotten into the soil 

 when the conditions are most favorable. Here at the 

 North the spring opens late, but suddenly and the tran- 

 sition to summer conditions of heat and often drouth 

 covers a very short period, making early planting of 

 small grains, grasses and some clovers very desirable. 



At either side of the plot, 5x42 feet in area is a 

 track forty-five feet long made up of 1x8 boards, the 

 two tracks being bolted at either end to cross pieces to 

 hold them in place. These cross pieces give sixty-two 

 inches between the tracks, allowing room for fifteen 

 rows four inches apart of grain to be planted at once, 



