66 
TESTING OF VARIETIES. 
The value of variety tests must consist in a study of the 
plant habit. To merely record that one variety is more or 
less prolific, or is better or worse suited for general culture, 
is not sufficient, and when such recommendation is founded 
upon yield alone, may be and probably is misleading. Direc- 
tor A. reports that one oat is more prolific than another, and 
so also do Directors B. and C. The same variety is rarely 
agreed upon, and the opinions, for we can call these expres- 
sions of results by no other name, are usually contradictory. 
An examination of the preceding reports of this Station 
will evidence that the relative order of maturity or of pro- 
lificacy do not hold through successive years. The true 
study of variety, to be of value, must embrace the proper- 
ties of the plant whereby certain adaptations are attained 
which render the variety better fitted for certain conditions of 
culture. Thus we would know of grain, whether stiffness 
of straw or weakness of straw, whether ability to endure 
high cultivation, or thin seeding or hardiness, etc., are an 
inherent property of the variety. We would know whether 
some varieties are more resistant to drought than others, or 
can withstand wetness. We would know the relations of 
the plant toward conditions apt to occur in cultivation, and 
the better we know these, the more reliable become the 
conclusions which are derived and disseminated as an aid 
to the cultivator. It is one of the necessities of true experi-° 
mental work that complete conclusions are not at once 
to be attained, and hence a certain incompleteness must 
appear in the reports, and the value of our work must largely 
depend upon the intelligence of the farmer who studies our 
results in order to find a few adaptations which seem fitted 
to his own use and which correspond to his own experi- 
ences. For us to say at the present stage of agricultural 
study that one variety is best, and inferentially that such 
variety should be adopted by all, would savor of quackery. 
The best reports we can offer are the results of trial under 
conditions as noted, and memoranda of variety peculiarities, 
-or such of them that we are able to definitely record. 



