CEREALS ON THE BELLE FOURCHE EXPERIMENT FARM. 13 



varieties. The last has been the most important feature of the 

 nursery work. 



The chief objects sought in the pure-line selections were: (1) To 

 obtain high-yielding and drought-resistant strains of wheat, oats, 

 and barley; (2) to obtain a more winter-hardy and high-yielding 

 Avinter wheat; and (8) to obtain a high-yielding awnless variety of 

 hard red winter wheat. 



NURSERY METHODS. 



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

 obtain as many types as possible. Each head was described care- 

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

 in a 5-foot row, 25 seeds usually being sown in each row. The dates 

 of sowing, emergence, heading, and ripening were recorded, as were 

 such other notes on hardiness, yield, etc., as appeared desirable. 

 Most of the selections w^ere retained and sown in longer rows in the 

 following years. From 1910 to 1915, inclusive, most of the nursery 

 rows were 60 feet long. These rows were sown with the grain 

 drill. Since 1915 most of the nursery experiments were conducted 

 in 16-foot or 17-foot rows, although some of the best strains were 

 tested in 60-foot rows, making possible a more rapid increase of 

 seed. In most cases the nursery experiments were replicated from 

 two to four or occasionally six times, depending on the supply of 

 seed and the area of land available. Yields of grain and straw were 

 recorded, and when the yield of grain was sufficient the weight per 

 bushel also was determined. The better strains and varieties grown 

 in the nursery were later sown in the field plats. 



A number of pure-line selections of wheat and oats made at 

 Newell have been tested in field plats for two to seven years. 



EXPERIMENTS ON DRY LAND. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH WHEAT. 



The experiments with wheat at Newell on dry land have included 

 plat and nursery experiments with both spring and winter varieties. 

 These were chiefly varietal, rate-of-seeding, and date-of-seecling ex- 

 periments, although considerable effort was devoted to the improve- 

 ment of varieties by selection. Wheat is the most important small- 

 grain crop in the northern Great Plains. Conseqiiently, the experi- 

 ments with wheat at Newell have been much more extensive than with 

 any other grain. 



