1920.] Plant Breeding at Aberystwyth. 739 



PLANT BREEDING WORK AT 

 ABERYSTWYTH. 



Professor E. G. Stapledon, M.A., 



Plant Breeding Institution, Aherystivyth. 



The first part of this article, jmhlished in last month's issue, 

 contained a description of the Plant Breeding Station which 

 has been formed at A herystwyth for the purpose of improving 

 and breeding strains of agricultural plants suitable for Welsh 

 conditions. An account urns given of investigations ivhich 

 have been conducted as necessary preliminaries to the actual 

 breeding work with herbage plants. The writer pointed out 

 that two methods are notv being em.ployed at Aberysttvyth, 

 namely, the collection of seed and the digging up of plants 

 in toto and planting them in gardens. As a first step the 

 seed of indigenous grasses is being collected more or less 

 in bulk from several different districts, in order to ascertain 

 how indigenous seed {without special selection) compares 

 with the ordinary commercial and imported stocks. Cocks- 

 foot, tall oat grass, crested dog's tail, meadow foxtail and 

 Timothy were in the first instance collected and soivn, and 

 perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and rough-stalked meadow 

 grass have since been added to the species under preliminary 

 investigation. 



Investigations relative to the improvement of grassland, con- 

 ducted by the writer, have led him to formulate the following 

 hypothesis as a guide to the selection of herbage plants. 

 First, it is desirable that the plants should be late in flowering; 

 €ven our native herbage plants flower and mature too early, 

 with the result that the niaximum grazing season is restricted. 

 This evil has been well expressed by Brown who states, for 



* Brown, Jas. C. "Dairy Farming on Arable Land,'' 



