VARIATION AND CORRELATION IN WHEAT, WITH 
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO WEIGHT OF SEED 
PLANTED 1 
By A. C. Arny, Head of Section of Farm Crops , and R. J. Garber, Assistant Plant 
Breeder t Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station 
INTRODUCTION 
Extensive work has been done to determine the relative value for 
planting of seeds of various sizes and weights selected by the use of the 
fanning mill and by hand. Some work along this line has been done by 
weighing the individual seeds planted. The evidence from some of these 
experiments is inconclusive, and a study of them raises several questions 
regarding the seed used, the weather conditions, and the character of the 
soil for the different seasons, and the technic followed. 
(1) Were the differences in weights or sizes of the individual seeds 
sown sufficiently great in any particular experiment so that a significant 
variation in yield could be expected? 
(2) Were the desired stands of plants usually secured and were they 
such that the various grades of seed could give expression to their par¬ 
ticular value? 
(3) May not the rainfall and temperature conditions during any part 
or throughout the entire growing season have been such that differences 
in yield, which in all probability would have resulted under ordinary 
conditions, did not materialize? 
(4) What has been the r61e of degree of fertility of the soils on which 
these trials have been conducted? 
(5) Under the conditions which obtained for any particular year was 
the technic of the experiments such that the experimental error could 
be ascertained? 
These factors, and in some cases others, are necessary considerations 
in arriving at conclusions from experiments regarding the relative 
value of various weights of seed for planting. 
The data presented in this paper are the results of a 4-year preliminary 
study of size of individual seeds of wheat in their relation to the resultant 
plants, to aid in interpreting more accurately trials of similar nature which 
are now in progress under field conditions. 
A careful study of the reactions to environment over a period of years 
of plants grown from accurately weighed seeds of various sizes ought to 
give fundamental information of value in this connection. 
1 Published, with the approval of the Director, as Paper iaa of the Journal Series of the Minnesota Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station. 
Journal of Agricultural Research, 
Washington, D. C. 
oz 
Vol. XIV, No. 9 
Aug. 36,1918 
Key No. Minn.-32 
(359) 
