O MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I915. 



but ones which would certainly be affected by the environment. 

 It is necessary to deal with these data in such a way as to elimi- 

 nate the effect of changes in the mean absolute value. 



The characters chosen for study were (i) the total height 

 from the crown to the tip of the tallest culm, (2) the number 

 of culms which bear seed, (3) the weig'ht of the whole plant 

 including the roots, (4) the w^eight of the grain, and finally (5) 

 the weight of the straw obtained by difference. All of these 

 characters can be easily and rapidly obtained. One difficulty not 

 clearly foreseen is that each of these characters is highly corre- 

 lated with each of the other characters, so that, as a matter of 

 fact, ^ results obtained by selection for any one character will 

 be, to a arge extent, duplicated in the case of another character 

 in tne same material. 



Special progeny record sheets were used for recording the 

 data. One of these sheets is reproduced in facsimile in Fig. i. 





\^A»»ieTY Plamteo Plot Row no. 



1 



Bl^OaSOMCO HARVESTeD 8tSTEB R0W8 



Mother Plant Row No. Plot No. Contrast Rows 



^ 



PUMT 



MO. 



..,0-, 



""'" 



WllO*tTO* 



ORAO. 



«««TOF 



PLANTED 



] UMt NO. 





ndTMO. 



ROW MO 



Mother selected fou 



c 



A 



















& 



B 



















& 



C 

















D 

















NO- OF Plants 







Z 



o 

 u 



e 

















QCNCRAL Notes 



F 



















G 





















H 

















J 

















H 



K 





















L 

















M 

















c 

 .2 



N 



































M 



















Q 

















}i 



R 











• 







iS 



S 

















, 



T 

















'P 



u 

















< 



















g 



















1 



Meas. 

















8T.Q. 





















































Fig. I. Facsimile of progeny record blank used in the oat 

 breeding work. 



The system' of records is such that it is possible to trace the 

 complete pedigree of any individual either backwards or for- 

 wards. The system of records in use in the plant breeding work 

 at this Station will be given in some detail in another paper and 

 will not be repeated here. 



