20 BREEDING DROUGHT-RESISTANT FORAGE PLANTS. 



at Bellefourche suggest that the method of planting in hills is still 

 more favorable to seed production and may be used to good advantage 

 where it is desired to increase rapidly the seed of some valuable strain. 

 It was observed that the yield of seed in the breeding plats at the 

 Highmore substation was often fairly good when the broadcast plats 

 yielded little or no seed. In 1907 a commercial seed firm in South 

 Dakota, with which the writer was then associated, obtained a yield 

 at the rate of 200 pounds of seed per acre in the alfalfa-breeding nur- 

 sery of half an acre. The plants were grown singly 18 inches apart, in 

 rows 36 inches apart. In the breeding nursery at Bellefourche in 1909 

 the yield of seed was much greater than from alfalfa seeded in broad- 

 cast plats or in double-cultivated rows. These yields are presented in 

 Table III. 



Table III. — Seed yield of alfalfa planted in hills compared with broadcast or row planting. 



i Seed yield Yield esti- 



Plat v««.« J i^«i««*fc.„-„^™,rf«f„ obtained Yield mated on 



No. 



Method of planting and variety 



on jVacre 



plat. 



per acre. perfect 

 stand. 



67 



p — 



Pounds. Pounds. Pounds. 



Breeding nursery, 475 plants, strains D and F, in hills 20 20i i 348 



Breeding nursery, 500 plants, strain E , in hills 26 260 } 430 



Broadcast plat, strain of Grimm alfalfa 12 120 



Double-cultivated rows, strain of Grimm alfalfa 8J 85 



In plat 67, 325 plants, and in plat 69, 350 plants, were discarded or 

 missing. The missing plants had been destroyed chiefly by pocket 

 gophers. In estimating yields the living plants nearest these were 

 discarded as having had an unduly favorable opportunity. For this 

 reason column 4 is added, estimating the yield per acre of a perfect 

 stand in the breeding nursery, which would be 825 plants on the 

 yV acre plat. 



The method of planting in hills or very thinly in single rows can be 

 recommended only where rapid increase of seed is desired, as when 

 some especially valuable selection is grown. With the present inter- 

 est in alfalfa breeding and the great need for drought-resistant and 

 hardy strains, the price of seed of superior strains is likely to be high. 

 Under such conditions the above method of seed increase may be 

 used to advantage. 



BREEDING DROUGHT-RESISTANT SORGOS. 

 CONDITIONS TO BE MET. 



Sorgo is an important forage crop in the central and southern Great 

 Plains, but its use in the northern part of the region has been limited 

 because the season is too short to allow the crop to mature seed. 

 Sorgo is not likely to be planted extensively in regions where seed can 

 not be matured. To purchase seed every year often makes the crop 

 unprofitable. Further than this, the greatest food value of the crop 



196 



