STUDIES ON OAT BREEDING. 12J 



other variety out of the original 18 is represented in the final 

 selection. This is the Imported Scotch with a single line. Evi- 

 dently either the Banner and Irish Victor possessed better yield- 

 ing ability or else these varieties tend to throw desirable inherit- 

 able variations more frequently than the others. These points 

 will be referred to below. 



The average yield of these pure lines ranged from 86.6 

 bushels to 77.4. A total range of about 9 bushels. The average 

 of the twelve lines for the three years is about 81 bushels per 

 acre. 



The highest yielding line is No. 355. Nos. 340 and 281 were 

 only slightly below the former. 



The next six lines, Nos. 351, 337, 230, 307^336, and 346, 

 give an average yield of approximately 80 bushels per acre. 

 The three remaining lines are probably to be regarded as slightly 

 inferior in yielding ability, although a consideration of the 

 yields in individual years does not always indicate this. 



On the whole these results indicate that these pure lines are 

 remarkably uniform in yielding ability. While there are some 

 differences in their relative yield from year to year and in the 

 average yield, nevertheless they are all well adapted to the 

 conditions under which they are grown at Highmoor. This 

 is, of course, what might be expected from the fact that these 

 are what remain after discarding the poorer strains from 460 

 original selections. 



It is now of interest to compare the yield of these pure lines 

 with the yield of the best obtainable commercial varieties 

 grown in the same years and under exactly the same conditions 

 as nearly as this is possible. There are n commercial varie- 

 ties which have been tested for all three years. For the most 

 part these represent the best commercial varieties which we 

 have been able to obtain. They are selected from over 40 varie- 

 ties that have been tested at Highmoor. Two or three of these 

 varieties are retained because they represent distinct types of 

 oats or like the Swedish Select because they are very popular 

 in this State. 



Table 8 gives the yields for these 11 commercial varieties. 

 In order to make the tables as comparable as possible the ob- 

 served, uncorrected, yield is given for 1913 and the corrected 

 yields for 1914 and 191 5. 



