20 BULLETIN 1287, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
NURSERY EXPERIMENTS 
NATURE AND SCOPE 
The nursery experiments conducted at Akron have consisted of 
seedings of newly introduced varieties, of varieties of which insuffi- 
cient seed was available for sowing in field plats, and of selections 
made from valuable commercial strains and from the progeny result- 
ing from crosses. Cultural and other experiments also have been 
conducted on a limited scale in the nursery. 
The testing of selections has been the most important feature of 
the nursery experiments. The selections have been made (1) to 
obtain earlier maturing, disease-resistant, and higher yielding strains 
of wheat, barley, and oats and (2) to obtain awnless and more hardy 
winter wheats which are equal in yield and quality to the hard red 
winter wheats now grown. 
The nursery experiments have increased greatly during the 15 
years since the station was established. In 1908 only 315 nursery 
rows were sown, and in 1922 more than 4,000 rows of all cereals were 
orown. 
NURSERY METHODS 
The nursery methods have varied with the different persons in 
charge of the experiments, but during the past five years have been 
similar to those in use on most experiment stations in the United 
States. A large number of new selections are made from field plats 
and commercial fields each season. These are carefully described 
as to plant and kernel characters, and each is sown in a row from 5 
to 8 feet in length. When time permits, a definite number of kernels 
is sown per row, spacing them at regular intervals. Usually, how- 
ever, these rows are sown with a small drill. The dates of sowing, 
emergence, heading, and ripening are noted on all seedings, with such 
other data on hardiness, disease resistance, and yield as appear 
desirable. Selections which seem to be promising in the head-row 
experiments are increased to rod rows the following season, and 
those showing undesirable characters are dropped. 
The distance between the so-called rod rows is always 1 foot. The 
row lengths are actually 18 feet for wheat and rye, 17 feet for oats 
and emmer, and 22 feet for barley. Just before harvest 1 foot of 
erain is removed from each end of the row, eliminating to some 
extent the border effect. This leaves 16 feet of row of wheat and 
rye, 15 feet of oats and emmer, and 20 feet of barley. The third 
season, selections which have shown average results or better in 
previous experiments are sown in triplicated rod rows. Checks of 
parental or of standard varieties are included at regular intervals in 
both the single and triplicated rod-row experiments. As a rule, 
selections are grown in triplicate rod rows for two or three seasons, 
after which the undesirable ones are dropped and the promising ones 
sown in hundredth-acre plats. The most promising are later included 
in the varietal experiments. Selections which appear exceptionally 
promising are increased more rapidly than others. A considerable 
number of new introductions and selections made at other stations 
are included in the nursery experiments each season. ‘These are 
generally sown in triplicated rod rows and are afterwards increased 
or discarded. A great many varieties have been tested in this way, 
but comparatively few have ever shown sufficient promise to warrant 
seeding them in plats. 
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