CEREAL EXPERIMENTS AT THE AKRON FIELD STATION. 108} 
RATES AND DATES OF SEEDING, 
_ The rate of seeding for wheat, oat, and barley varieties was 4 pecks 
per acre in the first year, 1908. Since 1908 the rate of seeding for 
wheat has been 3 pecks per acre. Barley was sown at the rate of 
3 pecks per acre in 1909 and 1910, and for the remaining time at the 
rate of 4 pecks per acre. The rate of seeding for oats was 3 pecks 
per acre from 1909 to 1912. In 1913 the rate for oats was increased 
to 4 pecks, which was continued in 1914 and 1915. The date of 
seeding has varied with seasonal conditions. Table VIII gives the 
dates of sowing for each of the more important cereals in the 8-year 
period, 1908 to 1915, inclusive. Spring grains have been sown as 
early as the seed bed could be put in condition to receive the seed. 
TaBLeE VIII.—Dates on which varieties of winter wheat, spring wheat, spring oats, and 
spring barley have been sown in each of the eight years, 1908 to 1915, inclusive, at the 
_ Akron Field Station, Akron, Colo. 
Cereal group. Cereal group. 
Crop year. ; : Crop year. i ; 
Winter | Spring | Spring | Spring Winter | Spring | Spring | Spring 
wheat. | wheat. oats. barley. Wheat. | wheat. oats. barley. 
1908...... Nov. 5 | Apr. 12 {| Apr. 12 | Apr. 12 || 1912...... Septri Agr. | Apr, 163 vApre5 
1909...... Sept. 23 | Apr. 26 | Apr. 26 | Apr. 25 || 1913:..-... Sept. 30 | Apr. 5 | Apr. 17 | Apr. 18 
1910......| Sept. 27 | Mar. 18 | Mar. 19 | Mar. 31 || 1914...-.. Sept. 26 | Mar. 24 | Mar. 30 | Mar. 31 
OTe Sept. 6 | Mar. 16 | Mar. 17 | Apr. 7 || 1915.-.:-.. Sept. 16 | Apr. 14 | Apr. 17 | Apr. 19 
NURSERY EXPERIMENTS. 
The nursery tests at Akron have included newly introduced varie- 
ties and those of which there was not sufficient seed for sowing in 
field plats and also pure-line selections from the better varieties. 
The tests of selections have been the largest feature of the nursery 
work. The varieties and selections have been grown in short rows, 
usually from 5 to 25 feet in length. It is possible in the nursery to 
test economically a very much larger number of varieties and strains 
than could have been included in field-plat tests. 
Over 250 separate named or numbered varieties of cereals have 
been grown in nursery rows. Wherever the performance was such 
as to indicate a possible superior or promising variety it was increased 
for further tests in field plats. The greater portion of the varieties 
tested proved inferior and have been discarded. A few are now 
being grown in field plats. 
Much more work has been done in an attempt to isolate superior 
races from varieties. A large number of heads were selected from 
plants in the field plats. The following season the grains from each 
head were sown in a short nursery row called a head row. Notes 
were taken during the growing season, and the more promising races 
