io PEDIGREE CORN AND STOCK 



extensive experiments carried out by the Irish De- 

 partment of Agriculture, to be the most profitable 

 barley to grow in Ireland, and has been extensively 

 disseminated there to the already manifest improve- 

 ment of the Irish barley crop. Mr. Beaven has picked 

 out another pure line from " Archer " which he believes 

 to possess certain points of superiority over the Danish 

 selection, and his seed is now being distributed over 

 the south and east of England, where Archer is the 

 most profitable barley, except on a few soils specially 

 suited to the true Chevallier varieties. Mr. Beaven 

 has also selected a " pure line " wide-eared barley 

 from a stock of Swedish origin, which is suitable for 

 the northern growers who prefer that type of barley. 

 The great difficulty about all such work is not to raise 

 the " pure line " strains either by selection or cross- 

 breeding, but to test their yield without the delay and 

 expense of propagating each on the scale even of 

 ordinary field plots ; and one of the most interesting 

 features of Mr. Beaven's experiments is the method he 

 has devised of matching his new varieties against 

 some standard sort when only a few hundred grains 

 are available. The two sorts are sown in alternate 

 rows of twelve carefully spaced individual plants to 

 the extent of a hundred rows or more ; the eight 

 central plants in each row are harvested separately, 

 the corn rubbed out and weighed ; then by considering 

 each pair of rows as a separate experiment, a con- 

 clusion can be reached not only as to the relative 

 yield of the two varieties, but also as to the degree 

 of confidence to be attached to the result. In addition 

 to his " pure line " strains we saw some of Mr. Beaven's 

 cross-bred barleys, none of which were then in com- 

 merce, though several had been tested in the cage, 

 and had been promoted to trials on the field scale. 



