20 



BULLETIN 99. U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



plats of 0.01 acre each and those of 1911 and 1912 in plats of 0.02 acre 

 each. Figure 6 shows a portion of the nursery used in the 1908 test. 

 Owing to lack of space, the number of strains under test was greatly 

 reduced in 1911. Only those which appeared to be most promising, 

 as indicated by the 1908 and 1910 tests, 1 were grown in the suc- 

 ceeding years. 



Of the strains grown three or more years, the highest average yields 

 to the acre were obtained from a pure line of the Sixty-Day oat, 

 62-II-6-3, 37.5 bushels; selection 34al-32 from the hybrid Burt X 

 Sixty-Day, 36.98 bushels; and a pure line of Snvermine, 125-3, 35.94 

 bushels. Of the commercial varieties grown at this station Silver- 



Fig. 6.— A portion of the oat nursery at the Virginia experiment station in 1903. 



mine leads in yield. None of the three strains just mentioned was 

 included in the 1908 tests. Of the nine strains which have been 

 grown all four years (1908 and 1910 to 1912), the highest average 

 yield, 32.9 bushels was produced by selection 33al-4-l from a hybrid 

 of two strains of Burt, though this yield only slightly exceeded those 

 of selections 34al-19-4 and 34al-25-2 from the hybrid Burt X Sixty- 

 Day. Apparently, among the varieties tested the most promising 

 for use in producing new strains for southwestern Virginia are the 

 Silvermine, Sixty-Day, and Burt. Late-maturing selections in series 

 ■8, 42, and 45 did not feompare favorably with the earlier ones in 

 series 33 and 34. 



1 The 1909 crop was partially destroyed by a storm just beiore harvest, and for that reason the results 

 for that vear have not been used. 



