STUDIES ON OAT BREEDING. 133 



It has been found that the difference in the time of heading 

 of the Banner and Irish Victor lines respectively amounts to 

 7-10 days. This difference is marked in the time of blooming 

 but is even more pronounced towards maturity so that the 

 Irish Victor lines can be harvested several days earlier than 

 the lines 307, 355, etc., of the Banner variety. Line 247, the 

 only representative of the. Imported Scotch variety, very nearly 

 approaches the Irish Victor lines in regard to stooling power 

 and maturity. In connection with Table 9 it was pointed out 

 that for the three years the Banner lines averaged to mature in 

 107 days, while the Irish Victor and Imported Scotch lines each 

 averaged 104 days. In some seasons the difference is much 

 more pronounced than that shown by these averages. 



Thus the Irish Victor and Imported Scotch lines may be 

 classified as medium early and those of the Banner variety as 

 medium late. The original parent variety of the Imported 

 Scotch consisted of a majority of rather small, early plants 

 with slender yellow grain and a small per cent of tall, large- 

 grained individuals of a yellowish white color and later maturity. 

 From this latter group line 247 was selected. In regard to 

 stooling ability and maturity the pure lines exhibit a similar 

 behavior to that of their parent varieties. 



The qualities of the straw are the next characters to be con- 

 sidered. The character of the straw determines the degree of 

 resistance of the plants to wind storms, rains and the influence 

 of rich soil which tend to cause lodging. The importance of the 

 structure and general constitution of the straw under the con- 

 ditions prevailing in this state does not need to be emphasized. 

 The most important of the straw characters is, therefore, its 

 breaking strength. Several methods have been tried by vari- 

 ous investigators in determining this character. One that is 

 very frequently used is to determine the relative amount of 

 force necessary to break a piece of the dry straw of a definite 

 length". Some attempts were made to determine this breaking 

 strength but the results obtained with the dry straw did not 

 agree with field observations as to lodging. Consequently the 

 attempt was abandoned. 



Various investigators have also studied the anatomical 

 structure of the culm and the amount of mineral substance 



"Leighty, C. E. Loc. cit. 



