BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 33. 





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

 December 17, 1914. 



CEREAL EXPERIMENTS AT DICKINSON, N. DAK. 1 



By J. Allen Clark, 



Scientific Assistant, Office of Cereal Investigations. 



(In cooperation with the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station.) 



INTRODUCTION. 



The cooperative experiments with cereals at the Dickinson 

 (N. Dak.) substation since 1907 have been confined to dry-land 

 crops and practices. Varietal and improvement tests and cultural 

 experiments have been conducted. The testing and improvement of 

 cereal varieties, which have constituted the major portion of the 

 work, are reported upon in this bulletin. The varietal tests are dis- 

 cussed in detail, followed by a brief statement regarding the efforts 

 to improve those varieties which appear to be most valuable. The 



1 The Dickinson substation was established in 1905 by the North Dakota Agricultural 

 Experiment Station and has since been operated as one of several " subexperiment sta- 

 tions " located at various points in the State. President J. PI. Worst, of the North 

 Dakota Agricultural College, was director of the State station from the time the Dickin- 

 son substation was established until Jan. 1, 1914, when Mr. Thomas P. Cooper was 

 appointed director. Prof. J. H. Shepperd has been vice director of the station during 

 the entire period. Mr. L. R. Waldron has been superintendent of the Dickinson sub- 

 station except for the year 1909, when he was granted a year's leave of absence, and Mr. 

 O. J. Grace, now superintendent of the Akron (Colo.) Experiment Farm, was acting 

 superintendent. In 1907 cooperative cereal work was started at the Dickinson sub- 

 station by the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. During the first few years of this 

 cooperation, the Bureau of Plant Industry assisted in planning and systematizing the 

 work and in furnishing seed grain, but gave little financial aid. More recently, the entire 

 salary of the man in charge of the cooperative work has been paid by the bureau. From 

 1907 to Jan. 1, 1912, the cooperative work was in direct charge successively of Supts. 

 Waldron and Grace, Mr. Charles H. Clark, and the writer, under employment by the 

 State. On the latter date the writer was appointed a scientific assistant in the Office 

 of Cereal Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry, remaining in charge of the cooperative 

 work with cereals at Dickinson. 



On July 1, 1903, a memorandum of understanding between the North Dakota Agri- 

 cultural College and the Bureau of Plant Industry was accepted by both parties. This 

 was revised on July 1, 1911. This memorandum specified that "the object of these 

 cooperative investigations shall be (1) to improve the wheat industry in the Northern 

 Plains region by discovering and producing varieties better than those now grown, 

 especially with regard to nitrogen content, yield, earliness, drought resistance, etc. ; (2) 

 to conduct similar experiments with oats, barley, and other cereals when it may be 

 desirable." 



Note. — This bulletin is of interest to agronomists and cereal breeders generally, and to 

 farmers in the northern Great Plains States. 



62800°— Bull. 33—14 1 



