42 Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. 1918. 



in this work include pure line selections and hybridization work. 

 Since the imported northwestern wheats showed such a 

 rapid deterioration and lack of adaptation it was thought advis- 

 able to confine the selection work chiefly to Maine grown va- 

 rieties of wheat. In 191 5 a large number of plants were selected 

 from commercial wheat varieties grown at Aroostook Farm 

 as well as on several farms in the County. The seed from 

 individual wheat ears was planted in garden rows in 1916 giving 

 rise to about 300 pure lines of wheat. The seed of each row 

 was harvested separately and tested in the laboratory with a 

 grain tester for hardness. About 100 pure lines were retained 

 and continued in duplicate 1-2000 acre plots in 1917. Each of 

 the pure lines grown in 19 17 furnished enough seed so that 

 protein analyses could be made with each line. The analyses 

 show a marked variation in the protein content which, however, 

 is generally quite high. Using these analyses and the field notes 

 as a basis a further scrutiny of these pure lines of wheat will 

 be made and the inferior strains eliminated. Several of these 

 lines are very promising and will be propagated in 1-80 acre 

 plots in 1918. It may be of interest to state that the most 

 promising strains represent selections from Maine grown wheats. 

 In the hybridization work with wheat several crosses have been 

 made between hard northwestern and Aroostook grown high 

 yielding wheats. 



Timothy Improvement. 



The hay crop is an important source of income in Aroostook 

 County. The yield of the hay crop as of any other crop can 

 be improved by breeding more productive strains. In this 

 State the merchantable hay crop is chiefly made up of timothy. 

 It was thought desirable to undertake some work with a view 

 toward improving the commercial timothy seed grown in this 

 State. Selection of most promising plants and their vegetative 

 propagation by means of bulbs or slips is the method followed 

 in this work. 



Seed was collected from individual heads of vigorous tall 

 culms borne by good plants growing in meadows and fields. 

 The seed was planted in flats each row representing the progeny 

 of a single head. After the plants produced the third leaf they 

 were transplanted into the grass garden. The seedlings from 



