36 



Influence of Good Seed. 



was cut produced a greater yield of both grain and straw and a 

 heavier weight of grain per measured bushel than that produced 

 from grain cut at any one of four earlier stages of maturity. 



Occasionally in Ontario the rains are so abundant at the time 

 of harvesting the wheat crop that the grain becomes sprouted 

 more or less in the shock or even before it has been cut. As 

 the crop dries, germination is checked and the grain hardens. It 

 is often a question as to whether such grain which has thus 

 started to germinate is as valuable for seed purposes as that 

 which was secured without becoming sprouted. In each of two 

 different years very careful germination tests were made at the 

 College of winter wheat which was out during wet weather and 

 which became more or less sprouted. Several varieties were used 

 each year. The average percentages of germination were as 

 follows : Seed which showed no outward sign of germination, 94; 

 seed slightly sprouted, 76; seed considerably sprouted, 30; and 

 seed badly sprouted, 18. It will therefore be seen that sprouting 

 injures the grain a great deal for seed purposes. When the 

 grains are badly sprouted, fully four-fifths of them decay in the 

 ground ; those which do germinate afford very uneven plants. 



From the results of experiments here presented in the selection 

 of seed, we see clearly the advantage of sowing large, plump, 

 sound, well-matured seed of strong vitality if the best results are 

 to be obtained. 



The Improvement of Wheat by Systematic Selection and by 

 Cross-fertilisation. 



A careful study of a large number of varieties of wheat for 

 several years in succession furnishes excellent foundation stock 

 for work in plant breeding. For a number of years past, par- 

 ticularly since 1902, a considerable amount of work has been done 

 at the Ontario Agricultural College in the hope of improving some 

 of the best varieties of wheat through selection and through cross- 

 fertilisation. Selections have been made of the Dawson's Golden 

 Chaff, Imperial Amber, Bulgarian and Turkey Red varieties of 

 winter wheat and of the Red Fife variety of spring wheat. Some 

 of these selections have been made by using choice heads obtained 

 from the large fields, others by using superior plants obtained 

 from about nine thousand plants of each variety, the seed of 

 which was planted in rows one foot apart, the plants being one 

 link apart in the rows. For sowing in rows the following year, 

 the best quality of seed from the selected plants was used. The 

 seed from those strains which produced the best results in the 

 rows was used for both rows and small plots in the year following. 

 In the next year, the seed of strains giving the best results both 

 in the rows and in the small plots was sown in rows, in small 



