BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 30 



Contribution by the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor, Chief 

 November 25, 1913. 



CEREAL INVESTIGATIONS AT THE NEPHI 

 SUBSTATION. 1 



By P. V. Cardon, 

 Scientific Assistant, Office of Cereal Investigations. 



(In cooperation with the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



The cooperative experiments conducted at the Nephi (Utah) sub- 

 station since 1907 comprise two distinct but closely related groups: 



(1) Varietal and improvement tests of several dry-land crops, and 



(2) cultural experiments with these crops. The experiments are 

 confined to dry-land crops and practices. They deal chiefly with the 

 cereals, of which wheat is the most important. Winter varieties of 

 wheat, oats, and barley are much more important than spring 

 varieties. 



Only those investigations which concern the first group of experi- 

 ments, i. e., varietal and improvement tests, are dealt with in this 

 bulletin. 



A preliminary report of cooperative cereal investigations at the 

 Nephi substation was published in the spring of 1910. 2 This report 

 covered the work from the beginning of the cooperation 3 on July 1, 

 1907, to the end of the season of 1909. Most of the experiments 



1 The Nephi substation was established in 1903 by the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. From 

 that time until July 1, 1907, it was operated as one of several "county farms " located at various points 

 in the State. Prof. L. A. Merrill, agronomist of the Utah station, directed the work from 1903 to 1905. 

 Thereafter until 1907 it was under the direction of Prof. W. M. Jardine, agronomist of the Utah station. 

 On July 1, 1907, cooperation between the Utah experiment station and the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 was effected, and F. D. Farrell, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, was placed in charge of the sub- 

 station. He was succeeded on March 15, 1910, by the present superintendent. From the time of the 

 establishment of the station until July 1, 1912, at which time he was succeeded by Mr. A. D. Ellison, Mr. 

 Stephen Boswell was foreman. From 1907 to 1912 the State of Utah has been represented through Prof. 

 L. A. Merrill, agronomist in charge of arid farms. 



2 Farrell, F. D. Dry-land grains in the Great Basin. U. S: Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, Circular 61, 40 p., 1910. 



3 On July 1, 1907, a "memorandum of understanding between the Utah Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion and the Bureau of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture, ' ' was accepted by both parties. 

 This memorandum specified that "the objects of these cooperative investigations shall be (1) to improve 

 the cereals of the intermountain region by introducing or producing better varieties than those now 

 grown, especially with regard to drought resistance, yield, quality, earliness, etc.; (2) to conduct such 

 other experiments as might seem advisable for the accomplishment of the greatest possible good to the 

 dry-land interests of the State." 



9679°— Bull. 30—13 1 



