2 BULLETIN 99, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
experiment stations for testing. In that year, on the resignation of 
Mr. Norton from the United States Department of Agriculture to 
accept a position in Cornell University, the writer was placed in 
charge of the oat-breeding experiments in connection with his other 
work with oats in the Office of Cereal Investigations. In 1909, the 
work in Illinois having been discontinued, the Iowa station was 
made the headquarters for the testing of the oat selections. Since 
that tune the more extensive tests have been made at the Iowa and 
Cornell University experiment stations, while smaller numbers of 
the selections have been tested at several of the other State stations, 
as detailed in the pages which follow. 
It is the purpose of this bulletin to present the results of these 
preliminary tests, as indicative of the varieties and varietal combina- 
tions which are most likely to prove of value in the various sections 
where the tests have been conducted. 
PARENTAGE OF THE SELECTIONS. 
Three lots of hybrids were made by Mr. Norton, the first at the 
Arlington Experimental Farm in 1902, the second on the Funk 
brothers' farms at McLean, 111., in 1905, and the third at the latter 
place in 1906. The hybrids resulting from the first lot of crosses have 
been quite widely tested. Those of the second and third lots have 
been grown only at the Iowa station and have not yet been tested 
long enough to report results. A considerable number of combina- 
tions were made in each of the years, but only those which are rep- 
resented in the nursery tests reported in this bulletin are given here. 
HYBRIDS. 
Of the 52 varietal crosses made in 1902 only 19 are represented in 
the records after 1906, the others either having failed or having been 
discarded because of evident inferiority. The varietal combinations 
which are still represented in the nursery tests, with the series num- 
bers by which they are designated, are as follows : 
3. Golden Giant X Asia Minor Rust- 
proof. 
8. Danish Island X Asia Minor Rust- 
proof. 
5. European Hull-less X Garton Tartar 
King. 
Garton Tartar King X Clydesdale. 
Silvermine X Danish Island. 
Burt X Clydesdale. 
Burt X Red Rustproof. 
Burt X Early Champion. 
Burt X Burt. 
34. Burt X Sixty-Day. 
38. Burt X Clydesdale. 
41. Asia Minor Rustproof X Clydesdale. 
42. Asia Minor Rustproof X Clydesdale. 
44. Asia Minor Rustproof X Garton Tartar 
King. 
45. Asia Minor Rustproof X Silvermine. 
48. North Finnish Black X Bint, 
49. Sixty-Day X Clydesdale. 
50. Sixty- Day X Probsteier. 
51. Sixty-Day X European Hull-less. 
