2 BULLETIN 99, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



experiment stations for testing. In that year, on the resignation of 

 Mr. Norton from the United States Department of Agriculture to 

 accept a position in Cornell University, the writer was placed in 

 charge of the oat-breeding experiments in connection with his other 

 work with oats in the Office of Cereal Investigations. In 1909, the 

 work in Illinois having been discontinued, the Iowa station was 

 made the headquarters for the testing of the oat selections. Since 

 that time the more extensive tests have been made at the Iowa and 

 Cornell University experiment stations, while smaller numbers of 

 the selections have been tested at several of the other State stations, 

 as detailed in the pages which follow. 



It is the purpose of this bulletin to present the results of these 

 preliminary tests, as indicative of the varieties and varietal combina- 

 tions which are most likely to prove of value in the various sections 

 where the tests have been conducted. 



PARENTAGE OF THE SELECTIONS. 



Three lots of hybrids were made by Mr. Norton, the first at the 

 Arlington Experimental Farm in 1902, the second on the Funk 

 brothers' farms at McLean, 111., in 1905, and the third at the latter 

 place in 1906., The hybrids resulting from the first lot of crosses have 

 been quite widely tested. Those of the second and third lots have 

 been grown only at the Iowa station and have not yet been tested 

 long enough to report results. A considerable number of combina- 

 tions were made in each of the years, but only those which are rep- 

 resented in the nursery tests reported in this bulletin are given here. 



HYBRIDS. 



Of the 52 varietal crosses made in 1902 only 19 are represented in 

 the records after 1906, the others either having failed or having been 

 discarded because of evident inferiority. The varietal combinations 

 which are still represented in the nursery tests, with the series num- 

 bers by which they are designated, are as follows: 



3. Golden Giant X Asia Minor Rust- 

 proof. 



8. Danish Island X Asia Minor Rust- 

 proof. 

 25. European Hull-less X Garton Tartar 

 King. 



27. Garton Tartar King X Clydesdale. 



28. Silvermine X Danish Island. 



30. Burt X Clydesdale. 



31. Burt X Red Rustproof. 



32. Burt X Early Champion. 



33. Burt X Burt. 



34. Burt X Sixty-Day. 

 38. Burt X Clydesdale. 



41. Asia Minor Rustproof X Clydesdale. 



42. Asia Minor Rustproof X Clydesdale. 



44. Asia Minor Rustproof X Garton Tartar 



King. 



45. Asia Minor Rustproof X Silvermine. 



48. North Finnish Black X Burt. 



49. Sixty-Day X Clydesdale. 



50. Sixty-Day X Probsteier. 



51. Sixty-Day X European Hull-less. 



