MORPHOLOGY, GENETICS AND BREEDING 



75 



has now been done with cuttings to permit the employment of F^ testing 

 should this seem to be desirable in peanut breeding. Gregory conducted 

 replicated F^ trials of peanuts from cuttings in 1945 with sufficient suc- 

 cess to show the reliability of this method of propagation. 



The first work recording the use of cuttings as a tool in varietal ex- 

 perimentation with peanuts was reported by Guerrero (28) who, on the 

 Island of Guam, made the first recorded comparison of yields of nuts and 

 forage per acre of peanuts from cuttings and from seed. It is obvious from 

 the limited data given that the experimental error was very large. No 

 further work has been reported from this source. Rodrigo (61) became 

 interested in the use of cuttings as a means of propagation to escape the 

 problem of seed deterioration common to the Philippines. His seed 

 germination averaged 94.7 percent and 89.7 percent of the cuttings rooted. 

 The following table gives some of the comparative figures on developed 

 pods, undeveloped pods, and pegs without pods at harvest for three 

 different varieties : 



Rodrigo pursued the problem of yield from cuttings further. Cuttings 

 were taken from three varieties when the plants were 2, 3, and 4 months 

 old. This experiment was badly hit by ants and drought so that no com- 

 parison could be made between seed and cuttings ; of the cuttings, how- 

 ever, the 3-month-old plant cuttings gave the highest percentage rooting 

 while the 2-month-old plant cuttings gave the greatest production of 

 forage and seed. 



Gregory (26) found that rapidly growing plants just prior to flower- 

 ing produced highly successful cuttings. It should be noted, however, that 

 the total number of cuttings per plant under these circumstances is much 

 smaller than from older flowering specimens. 



Harvey and Schultz (29) compared the yields of plants from cuttings 

 of main stems and laterals with the yields of plants from seed. It will be 

 recalled that the peanut produces a single main stem, primary laterals, 



