CEREALS ON THE BELLE FOURCHE EXPERIMENT FARM. 13 
varieties. The last has been the most important feature of the 
nursery work. 
The chief objects sought in the pure-line selections were : (1) To 
obtain high-yielding and drought-resistant strains of wheat, oats, 
and barley; (2) to obtain a more winter-hardy and high-yielding 
winter wheat; and (3) to obtain a high-yielding awnless variety of 
hard red winter wheat. 
NURSERY METHODS. 
Single heads were selected from the field plats, the aim being to 
obtain as many types as possible. Each head was described care- 
fully before it was thrashed. The seeds from each head were sown 
in a 5-foot row, 25 seeds usually being sown in each row. The dates 
of sowing, emergence, heading, and ripening were recorded, as were 
such other notes on hardiness, yield, etc., as appeared desirable. 
Most of the selections were retained and sown in longer rows in the 
following years. From 1910 to 1915, inclusive, most of the nursery 
rows were 60 feet long. These rows were sown with the grain 
drill. Since 1915 most of the nursery experiments were conducted 
in 16-foot or 17-foot rows, although some of the best strains were 
tested in 60-foot rows, making possible a more rapid increase of 
seed. In most cases the nursery experiments were replicated from 
two to four or occasionally six times, depending on the supply of 
seed and the area of land available. Yields of grain and straw were 
recorded, and when the yield of grain was sufficient the weight per 
bushel also was determined. The better strains and varieties grown 
in the nursery were later sown in the field plats. 
A number of pure-line selections of wheat and oats made at 
Newell have been tested in field plats for two to seven years. 
EXPERIMENTS ON DRY LAND. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH WHEAT. 
The experiments with wheat at Newell on dry land have included 
plat and nursery experiments with both spring and winter varieties. 
These were chiefly varietal, rate-of-seeding. and date-of-seeding ex- 
periments, although considerable effort was devoted to the improve- 
ment of varieties by selection. Wheat is the most important small- 
grain crop in the northern Great Plains. Consequently, the experi- 
ments with wheat at Newell have been much more extensive than with 
any other grain. 
