CEREAL INVESTIGATIONS ON THE BELLE FOURCHE FARM. 13 



field plats. In many cases the drought has been so severe that all 

 the races and varieties failed to mature grain, regardless of their 

 ability to evade or- resist moderate droughts. 



When work was begun at the Belle Fourche Experiment Farm, 

 the best crops and varieties for that section were fairly well known. 

 It seemed, therefore, that the best plan in crop improvement was to 

 select from these few varieties rather than from many which might 

 prove to be unadapted. As the better varieties were for the most 

 part unselected, this line of work seemed to be specially promising. 



It appeared that isolation of these types and a study of their char- 

 acteristics and values ought to precede attempts to improve them by 

 hybridization. Accordingly, in 1908, several hundred selections 

 were made from winter wheat, spring durum wheat, spring common 

 wheat, and oats. These were mainly from Turkey, Kharkof, and 

 Crimean winter wheat, Kubanka durum wheat, and Sixty-Day and 

 Kherson oats. Additional selections from these and other varieties 

 were made in subsequent years. 



NURSERY METHODS. 



Single heads were selected from the field plats, the aim being to 

 obtain as many types as possible. Each head was described carefully 

 before it was thrashed. The seeds from each head were then sown 

 in a 5-foot row. The number of kernels sown in each row was 

 usually 25. The dates of planting, emergence, heading, and ripening 

 were recorded, as were such other notes on hardiness, yield, etc., as 

 appeared to be desirable. At harvest the rows which seemed to be 

 especially undesirable were discarded, but in all cases at least one 

 selection of each type was retained for further study. Most, of these 

 races which were retained were sown with an ordinary grain drill 

 in 60-foot rows in 1910 and succeeding seasons. As far as possible, 

 replicate plantings have been made, but loss of seed in unfavorable 

 seasons and lack of land and labor have made impossible as frequent 

 replication as has seemed desirable. 



INTERPRETATION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS. 



The best variety or method of culture is the one which, on the 

 average, will produce the highest yield of grain of the greatest value at 

 the least cost. It is seldom that a single variety or method will fulfill 

 all these requirements for all seasons. Usually one will give the best 

 results one season, another the second, and perhaps still another the 

 third. The best method or variety, presumably, is that one which 

 gives the best average during a series of years, provided the seasons 

 are representative. In actual practice, however, the problem is more 

 complicated than would appear from this statement. The variation 



