28 BULLETIN 270, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
TaBLeE XIV.—Annual and average yields in a rate-of-seeding test of Swedish Select oats 
at the Williston substation, 1911 to 1914, inclusive. 
Yield per acre (bushels). 
Rate of seeding. | 
| 1911 1912 1913 1914 | Average. 
2 DOCKS sce aes Segal eas Stewie oe Sens Pace Sees oe | 3.95 76.9 38.8 82.2 50.4 
BI POCRS a5 2 a ieee oe 35 Se aE ee aS Se 6.0 70.0 73.8 97.3 61.8 
G Peck see Set eae es = Foe ea a Rees Ie 6.4 53.7 78.1 108. 2 61.6 
SeCNSoe ee seh Reee ean Ee ete agen e 7.3 60.0 75.6 111.4 63.6 
peeks ease een eo Se otal Dae ce eee 10.8 64.4 (3202 [h sc canes ceases 
The highest average yield, 63.6 bushels, as shown in Table XIV, 
has been obtained from the 8-peck rate. This yield, however, is only 
slightly higher than was obtained from the 4-peck and 6-peck rates, 
and when the extra bushel of seed required is taken into account it 
exceeds the 4-peck rate by only 0.8 bushel. 
Attention is called to the fact that three of the four years during 
which the test has been conducted have been favorable ones for crop 
production and that one of them (1914) was particularly favorable 
for oats. Experiments elsewhere in the Great Plains have shown 
that the higher rates of seeding for the various cereals usually give 
best returns in favorable years, but that in ordinary or unfavorable 
years the lower rates are better. If the particularly favorable year 
(1914) is disregarded, the average yield from the 4-peck rate at Willis- 
ton for the preceding three years is about 3 bushels higher than from 
either of the higher rates. At present, therefore, it appears to be 
advisable to recommend sowing from 4 to 6 pecks of oats to the acre 
in the Williston district. This test will be continued and the results 
reported at a later date. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH BARLEY. 
Practically all the varieties of barley which have been grown at 
Williston have been of the ordinary hulled (common) class, though 
two naked (hull-less) varieties have been included in the tests. All 
the varieties, with the exception of Nepal, are bearded. About two- 
thirds of the hulled varieties are 6-rowed and one-third 2-rowed. 
The annual and average yields of the 26 varieties and races of barley 
which have been grown at Williston for the seven years from 1908 to 
1914 are given in Table XV. Of these 26 varieties only 14 were 
tested in 1914, the others having been discarded previously. 
LEADING VARIETIES. ¢ 
As shown in Table XV, the yields of only six varieties of barley are 
available for the full period of seven years. Of these, four are 6-rowed 
and two are 2-rowed barleys. All are bearded and all are hulled (com- 
mon) varieties. The few naked and hooded varieties which have 
been grown at Williston have produced very low yields. 
