82 



THE PEANUT— THE UNPREDICTABLE LEGUME 



quality, and oil of Spanish peanuts with disease resistance and nonsprout- 

 ing of the bunch and runner types. 



Results of variety yield trials for the years 1929, 1930, and 1931 were 

 reported for the Holland, Virginia, Station by Beattie and Batten (7). 

 This work was mainly directed toward increasing seed size. It was con- 

 cluded that at least seven strains of Virginia type peanuts had inherent 

 qualities of extra large seed. 



In 1943, Batten (5) reported regarding the selection work at the 

 Virginia Station: "The idea has been to develop a strain which would 

 produce a high percentage of extra large kernels, 30 to 32 per ounce." 

 The method of breeding has been confined to single hill selection without 

 prior hybridization. The breeder stated that these selections behaved as 

 pure lines. Batten (6) announced the release of two improved selections 

 in 1945. The following table presents comparisons of these strains with 

 a local commercial variety : 



A Comparison of Yield and Grade of Two New Strains of Peanuts with a 



Commercial Variety 



Beattie, in private correspondence with one of the writers, stated: 

 "Peanut Improvement by Selection: All this work has been carried on in 

 cooperation with the State experiment stations in South Carolina, Vir- 

 ginia and Georgia. Dating back to 1918 and using individual hills as 

 starting points, a number of high yielding; desirable quality strains have 

 been developed. Spanish 18-38, Improved Spanish 2-B, and several 

 strains of the large-seeded Virginia type are examples. Spanish 18-38 in 

 particular has attained considerable commercial importance in most parts 

 of the peanut-producing area." 



Since 1945 the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Statio.n has 

 been conducting research on the nature and extent of eflfective variation 

 in populations from peanut hybrids. These experiments have been de- 

 signed to indicate what, if any, breeding opportunities exist following the 

 varietal crossing of peanuts. Preliminary results from this work show that 



