14 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1920 



texture of the kernel. While it is recognized that these fea- 

 tures are not always a reliable index of the quality of wheat, 

 especially when estimating grains from different varieties, yet 

 the diagnostic value of these determinations is enhanced when 

 they are made upon different strains within the same variety. 

 The determination of the physical characters of a number of 

 strains within the same variety soon leads to the formation of a 

 standard for each variety so that the relative quality of the ker- 

 nels from the strains of the same variety can be fairly accurate- 

 ly judged. It may be added in this connection that the deter- 

 mination of the characters of the grain at the early stage of 

 selection is really of no great importance since it is the progeny 

 of the selected plants, the first generation after selection, that 

 offers a more reliable basis for the determination of quality. 



Brief Account of the Origin of the Pure Lines of Wheat 

 at Aroostook Farm. 



In 1 91 5 several hundred selections were made from com- 

 mercial varieties of wheat grown at Aroostook Farm and from 

 a number of wheat fields in the County. In this work normal, 

 medium sized spikes well developed at the tip, were selected 

 rather than whole plants since in the close field stand it is not 

 always possible with certainty to isolate individual plants. In 

 these selections were represented wheat spikes of the four 

 groups of spring wheat : Fife, Bluestem, Preston and Durum. 

 Representative spikes and grain of these wheats are shown in 

 Figures 1 to 6. Of these selections 259 spikes were retained 

 and planted in rows in the cereal crop nursery in 1916. Each 

 row was planted with the seed of a single wheat spike. The 

 number of rows grown in 1916, each representing a strain 

 selected from the different varieties is given on page 17. 



During the growing season notes were taken on the char- 

 acters of the spikes, tillering capacity, strength of straw, sus- 

 ceptibility to disease as well as data relative to time of heading 

 and bloom. The data on the physical characters of the grain 

 in conjunction with the field notes served as a basis for further 

 selection as a result of which 91 strains of the original 259 were 

 retained. These 91 strains were planted in 1917 in one two- 

 thousandth acre plots. Along with the pure lines of Aroostook 



