24 BREEDING DROUGHT-RESISTANT FORAGE PLANTS. 



BREEDING DROUGHT-RESISTANT MILLETS. 

 SEGREGATION OF STRAINS. 



Several varieties of foxtail millets {Chaetochloa italica) are grown 

 rather extensively in the northern Great Plains. This crop is espe- 

 cially valuable there because it requires only a few weeks to complete 

 its development; for this reason it is often used as a "catch crop" to 

 replace other crops which have been frozen or otherwise destroyed 

 in early summer. 



Most of the varieties now on the market are mixtures of more or 

 less distinct types and offer an excellent opportunity to the plant 

 breeder to segregate these types and develop pure strains. This 

 has been the purpose of the work here described, special attention 

 being given to the segregation of strains characterized by drought 

 resistance, early maturity, and maximum forage yield. 



RESULTS OF PRELIMINARY WORK AT THE HIGHMORE SUBSTATION. 



Mention is made in Bulletin 101 of the South Dakota Agricultural 

 Experiment Station of the breeding work with foxtail* millets carried 

 on in cooperation with the Bureau of Plant Industry at the Highmore 

 substation. The breeding work was conducted with five varieties 

 of millet — Kursk, Common, Siberian, Hungarian, and German. 

 Several uniform and productive strains were developed at Highmore 

 and were grown for comparison of yields, but the results have not 

 been published in detail. Seed of one pure strain of Kursk millet 

 developed at Highmore has been increased by a commercial seed 

 firm and is now offered for sale. The Office of Forage-Crop Investi- 

 gations of the Bureau of Plant Industry secured some of this seed in 

 1907, and it was distributed under S. P. I. No. 22420. 



VARIETY TESTS AT THE BELLEFOURCHE EXPERIMENT FARM. 



In 1908 breeding work was begun at the Bellefourche Experiment 

 Farm with five varieties of foxtail millet {Chaetochloa italica). In 

 cooperation with the Office of Forage-Crop Investigations a prelimi- 

 nary test was made in 1908 of these varieties in 2V acre plats and in 

 1909 in T V-acre plats. The results were as follows: 



196 



