144 maine agricultural experiment station. i916. 



Discussion and Conclusions. 



After the discussion of the various characters and qualities 

 of these pure lines we come to the practical question as to 

 which is the best. It has been clearly brought out in the paper 

 that under Highmoor conditions all of these twelve pure lines 

 possess desirable qualities. If that had not been the case they 

 would have been discarded. While under our conditions one or 

 two of these lines have appeared to be especially good, it is not 

 at all certain that under other conditions some of the other 

 lines might not prove as good or better. It is certain that any 

 one of these lines is capable of producing a much better yield 

 of oats than the varieties commonly grown in the state. 



In this connection, however, we desire to say that if these or 

 any other varieties are sown on wornout land without proper 

 fertilization, or if the seed bed is poorly prepared, good yields 

 cannot be expected. A circular giving the exact methods used 

 in growing oats on our two farms will be sent to any resident 

 of the state on request. It will be seen from this circular that 

 the methods used by us are only such as can be employed by 

 any intelligent farmer. 



Of the twelve pure lines we have chosen No. 340 as the best 

 for Highmoor conditions. As shown in Table 7, this variety 

 stands second in average yield for the three years. It has a 

 very stiff straw and even under very severe tests has shown 

 practically no lodging. In this respect it has appeared superior 

 to No. 355 which gave a higher average yield. Further No. 

 340 has a very good white grain and a high weight per meas- 

 ured bushel. It has the highest weight per 1,000 grains of any 

 of the pure lines. It has a relatively low hull percentage. It 

 shows a relatively small amount of variation in the yield of its 

 four 19 1 5 plots (Table 6). 



In 1914 this line was grown in a field test plot about three- 

 quarters of an acre in area. It gave a yield of 86 bushels per 

 acre. In 191 5 this pure line was grown as a farm oat at High- 

 moor. While the area was not accurately measured, there 

 were about 13 acres. The average yield was about 75 bushels 

 per acre. In the variety test plots Maine 340 has averaged for 

 the three years to yield 9.3 bushels per acre more than its parent 

 variety, the Irish Victor, during the same time. Further, as 

 may be seen from Tables 7 and 8, this difference in yield be- 



