TESTS OF BARLEY VARIETIES IN" AMERICA 13 
With this better development of methods and with the better 
training of the younger generation of experimenters has come the 
doubt as to the vahie of the early tests. No student of agronomy 
fails to realize the progress that has been made in the methods of 
accurate valuation of cereal stocks. There is no reason to think that 
our present methods are fully accurate. On the other hand, there 
is no reason to believe that the early work was wholly inaccurate. 
Probably the early tests did not show the true rank oi varieties of 
nearly equal value. They did afford an indication of these values, 
however, and most certainly did definitely and correctly establish 
the type of barley most valuable in many sections. The Wisconsin 
and Minnesota stations found the Manchuria-Oderbrucker barley 
to be the most promising type long before plats were replicated or 
varieties purified. In the typewritten report of the cooperative 
experiments at Davis, Calif., in 1909 the following statement occurs: 
Hardly sufficient data are at hand to make any definite statement as to the 
most promising varieties. About all that can be said is that, so far, we have no 
new variety that promises nearly so well as the common barley. It is certain 
that none will withstand as much wind as the common barley. 
The Coast barley is still the common barley of the interior valley of 
California. Recently two new varieties have been grown. The 
California Mariout has been widely distributed in California, and 
the Club Mariout has been grown in a limited area. Both of these 
are of North African origin, and it is unlikely that either will displace 
Coast as the dominant variety, although the California Mariout is 
probably more wind resistant than the Coast. 
PREPARATION OF MATERIAL 
IDENTIFICATION OF VARIETIES 
The identification of the varieties appearing in the early experi- 
ments has been very difficult. The order in which the experimental 
results were received by the writers from the State stations also was 
unfortunate. If the work could have started with the results from, 
the Central Experimental Farm at Ottawa, Canada, and the State 
experiment stations of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota at 
hand, the final compilation of data from all stations would have been 
better. These four stations, with the Agricultural College at Guelph, 
Ontario, are the key stations in tracing the early varieties. Many 
of those varieties were produced and many others first were tested at 
one or the other of these five institutions. Varieties frequently were 
sent back and forth between stations, unfortunately acqiui-ing a new 
number with each accession until their identity was much confused. 
The same varieties also were obtained by seedsmen and reacquhed by 
the stations from them. There was continual opportunity for 
mechanical mixture and always a possibility of confusing varieties by 
accident in such a way that they might be carried under a name other 
than the one originally used. 
The identifications were made largely by the records of the stations 
and checked in various ways. The accession records of the American 
stations were made available to the writers. These records usually 
showed the source from which the seed was obtained and stated 
whether the lot was 2 rowed or 6 rowed. The field records of yields 
