studies on oat breeding. 1 89 



Summary and Conclusions. 



The present bulletin is one of a proposed series of papers on 

 breeding and inheritance in oats. This paper deals with the 

 results of the tests of commercial varieties of oats which have 

 been carried out during the past four years. The object of these 

 variety tests is first to find out which of the more popular com- 

 mercial varieties of oats are best adapted to our conditions and 

 second to furnish material for further breeding operations with 

 this crop. 



These variety tests have been carried on for four years. It 

 is realized that this is too short a time to draw final conclusions 

 regarding the comparative value of the varieties. However, the 

 data already obtained ofifer certain indications which should be 

 of much value to those farmers who are looking for better varie- 

 ties than they already have. 



In the present bulletin the character of the soil and the meth- 

 ods of growing and handling of the crop are discussed in detail. 

 The source and the chief characters of each variety used are 

 given. A more detailed description is given of some of the 

 more important varieties. 



In 1910 and 191 1 each variety was grown on a single one- 

 tenth acre plot. In 19 12 dupHcate one-tenth acre plots were 

 used. In 191 3 each variety was grown in four one- fortieth acre 

 plots. These plots were distributed over the field in a regular 

 manner so that differences in the character of the soil were more 

 evenly distributed among the dififerent varieties. 



Tables 3 to 6 inclusive give the detailed data regarding each 

 plot grown. For the years 1912 and 1913 the averages of the 

 several plots of each variety are also given. 



During the four years, thirty-four differently named varieties 

 have been tested. In some instances several strains of the 

 same variety have been tested. In most instances such strains 

 differed very markedly from each other in their yielding abili- 

 ties. For example as shown in Table 3, four strains of the 



