/I 7 [ssui il June 30, 1000 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, BUREAl OF PLANT [NDUSTRY Circular No. 30. B. I GALLOW KY, Chief I.MIMiOYI-.MI-.XT OF THE OAT CROP. C. W. WARBURTON, Agronomist i\ Charge of Oat [investigations. ST'ilo < 'ir. ::ii 09 WASHINGTON : QOVEHNMEST PNlNTlNQ OFFICE I nfoilMENTS PEP U.S. DEPOSITORY BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. Chief »f Bureau, Bbverls T. Galloway. Issistant I'li'h j uj Hunan. ALBERT F. Woods. Editor, J. 10. Rockwell. Chief Clerk, James K. Jones. [Civ. 30] 2 I: I- I IMPROVEMENT OF THE OAT CROP." NEED FOR IMPROVEMENT. Nearly 32,000,000 acres wen- devoted i«> the production of oats in the United States in L907. This was the largesl acreage reported up to that time, l>nt the acre yield was the lowest since l s '.»:i and among the lowest recorded by the Bureau of Statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture. The quality in the principal oat-pro- ducing sections was also very poor. The acreage in 1908 was i proximately the same as thai of the previous year, and though the crop was slightly larger than in L907, yet it was far below the average of the previous ten years. When the average yield of oats for the United Stale- is as low as 25 bushels to the acre, as it has been in the past two years, it is evident thai improved varieties and better methods of growing and handling the crop are much needed. Only the improvement of the crop as effected through the seed will l>e dis- • d here. II e low yield and poor quality of the cal crop over a large portion of the Tinted States in 1907 and 1908 leave no doubt of the need for the improvement of iliis cereal. Much attention has been given to the selection and improvement of com in the last ten years; agricultural papers Lave been filled with sugges- tions Hi' methods and details of results; numerous bulletins on the subject have been published by the agricultural experi nl stations; fanners' institute lectures have bejen devoted to it : and in many States "seed-corn trains" have run "ii prominent railroad lines. Strangely enough, with all this enthu- siasm ami the actual improvement of the '-urn crop which lias resulted, farmers nave given little attention t<> the breeding of other cereals. Recentlj there lias l u some genera] discussion as to methods of improving them, but the subject is still one which is little understood by farmers, and for thai reason thepri paper lias been prepared. The method of improvement by individual plant selections recommended by the author lias i een used with much sm-res- bj European and American small- grain breeders for years, and as here outlined is now used bj a number of ex- periment stations as well as on the experimental farms of the Office of Grain Investigations of this Bureau. — B. T. Galloway, Physiologist and Pathologist, tinil Chief of Bureau. [Clr. 30] :: 4 IMPROVEMENT OF THE OAT CROP. LINES ALONG WHICH IMPROVEMENT CAN BE EFFECTED. The prominent lines along which the oat crop can be improved are the yield, ratio of kernel to hull, and weight per bushel. Inci- dentally, selection may be made for strength of straw, resistance to disease, and earliness, though all these points usually contribute to the increase in yield. For cereal manufacture a high ratio of kernel to hull is desirable, and this may be made the basis of selection. Generally speaking, selection will be made for increased yield, with incidental reference to lodging and disease resistance, and to time of maturity. METHODS OF IMPROVEMENT. Several methods of attaining the desired end in the improvement of any small-grain crop may be suggested. These are: Mechanical selection: introduction of new seed; use of the seed plat; individual plant or head selection, and hybridization. aj e< ;hanical sele< ition. Much has been said and written about the use of the fanning mill and other means of seed separation by gravity or wind power for the improvement of seed oats. Actual field tests carefully con- ducted by several experiment stations indicate that little permanent improvement of the variety results from these methods of selection. If the seed is carefully cleaned each year, however, the work wili he fully justified by the removal of weed seed and the small shriveled grain, which, if it grew at all. would probably produce wqak and unproductive plants. The ordinary field crop of oats is a mixture of several varieties, some of which are necessarily inferior. Me- chanical selection can not, of course, purify the strain by the removal of these mixtures, which are often the cause of unsatisfactory re- turns. This can lie accomplished only by hand selection. INTRODUCTION of NEW SEED. The introduction of new seed includes importations from foreign countries and transfer from one locality to another within the United States. Many of our best varieties have been introduce'! from foreign countries: indeed, it is probably true that more good varieties of oats have been introduced from abroad, especially from Europe, than of any other cereal. This is largely due. however, to the fact that little attention has been given to the production of new varieties of oats in the United States. Notable among the introduc- tions n\' recent years have been Swedish Select and Sixty-Day. intro- duced by the United States Department of Agriculture, and Kher- . 30] I \1 PRI <\ I \l I N I "I >\ I CR( IP. 5 son, introduced by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Stal While much bas been done in this line in the past, we can not depend entirely on this source for the future, as we have practically ex- hausted the List of existing varieties in Europe, and highly special ized varieties bred there are unlikely to succeed over any large area of the United States. The selection and improvement of those varieties already introduced which have proved of value can best be carried on in our own country in the sections to which they are adapted. Little permanent improvement can be secured by the exchange of s I from one locality to another. A variety which does well in one State or section will not necessarily succeed in another, even though conditions arc apparently similar, whereas the general tendency is to make these transfers between localities with greatly varying con- ditions n!' soil and climate. The transfer of plump, heavy grain grown ninler irrigation in Montana can hardly be attended with success when the succeeding crop is grown under the very differenl conditions of Iowa or [llinois. Experiments now being made by the Office of Grain Investigations of this Bureau indicate thai home- grown seed of a given variety will in general outyield that from a distance, even where the original stock is the same. At Amarillo. Tex., home-grown seed of Burl oats yielded practically twice a< much as an adjoining plal of the same variety from seed which had been mown in central Kansas for two years, though both lots were grown from the same original stock. Where improved high yielding varieties can be secured from near-by growers, their purchase to replace common or inferior -lock is to be recommended, but it is not advisable to secure seed oats from a section in which the condi- tions are widely different from those under which the crop is to be grow n. I SE OF THE SEED PL \ I . A practical method of improving the oat crop, though one which involves some time and expense, is the use of the small seed plat. This requires the selection of a considerable quantity of good heads from the field after the grain matures, and just before it is harvested. Care should be exercised in selecting the heads, >o as to get them as nearly a- possible of one type. Only plant- which show superior qualities under ordinary c litions should be -elected. Those which stand alone, near the edge of the field, or which are otherwise especially favored, should be rejected. The heads selected should be thrashed by hand and the grain secured should be -own on a plat of well prepared land the following spring. The crop should be harvested and thrashed separately from the main crop. At thrash- [Clr. 6 IMPROVEMENT OE THE OAT CROP. ing, the firs! portion to go through the machine should be rejected, as it is likely to contain a mixture of other grain. The grain from the seed plat should be used the succeeding year for sowing the general crop, or such portion of it as the quantity of seed secured makes possible. To effect permanent improvement, the best heads should be selected from the seed plat at each harvest to plant the seed plat of the next year. The quantity selected will, of course, vary with the size of the seed plat desired. If possible this should be large enough to furnish seed for the general crop of the following year. "Where the acreage is considerable, another year is required for the transfi i from the seed plat to the general crop. For instance, enough heads are selected the first season to make one bushel of seed. This is sown on a half acre and produces 25 bushels. ' The 25 bushels will sow 10 to 12 acres the following year, which should produce enough to sow several hundred acres the succeeding year. The length of time from seed plat to general crop will, of course, depend on the ratio of size of the small plat to the acreage of the general crop. The term " seed plat " is sometimes used to designate the plat or small field in which new or desirable varieties are increased until sufficient seed is secured for the field crop. Thus, if a seed grower or dealer or an experiment station in the vicinity has a good -train which the farmer wishes to try, it can be sown in this trial or seed plat, and if it proves better under his conditions than his genera] crop it can be increased sufficiently in a year or two to take the place of the old variety in the field. The use of the seed plat in this wax- is often advisable, as it offers an opportunity to test the new variety on a small scale without risking the entire crop. Frequently, too. seed of new varieties can not be secured in sufficienl quantity, or is too high in price, for the sowing of large fields, and an increase plat is thus made a necessity. INDIVID! AL PLANT SELECTION. The most reliable and. al the same time, the slowesl means of improvement i- by the selection of individual plants and the estab- lishmenl of pedigreed strains. Individual heads should be selected from the field crop as for the seed plat. hut. instead of hulking the seed when thrashed, the seed from the several head- should he planted in separate rows. An excellent method of testing these selections has been described by Mr. d. B. Norton," formerly in charge of the "American Breeders' Association, vol. •">. pp. 280-285. This plan is outlined rather e in detail by II. J. Webber in Cornell University Agricultural Ex- periment Station Bulletin 251, pp. 318^-319. [Cir. 30] !.\l l'l;«>\ EMKNT 01 CHE OA1 CROP GUARD_ROW _ _, GUARD ROW CHECK ROW -£. oat breeding work of 1 1 1 i - Bureau; a brief outline of this [)lan is given below. The seed from the individual heads is planted the firs! year in rows ."> feci long and I foot apart, [fa considerable number of rows are planted, ii will be found convenient if run them in three series, with a — narrow -pace between the series, as shown in the diagram I fig. L). If weeds are numerous, one or two hoe- — ings may be necessary. At harve i time the plal should be gone over carefully, and those rows which ap- ~ pear to be low in yield, or are par- — ticularly subject to lodging, disease, or undesirable qualities of any kind. should be discarded. Those of out- standing value should be harvested and thrashed separately, and retained — for further test in";. _ The next year the seed from these rows should be planted in rows 17 feel long and 1 foot apart, planting everj tenth row of a standard variety — or of the bulk seed from \\ hich the original selections were made, for — .CHECK ROW tCHECK ROW .1 CHECK ROW , GUARD ROW ^ GUARD ROW W/r* -I Ft*. 5Fr % comparison and for the detection of soil variations. Each of the shorl rows of the preceding year should have produced enough seed for two or more of these 1 7-fool row s. 'The ~e\ eral row s of any pan icular strain should be planted in di fferent pan - of the plat so as to equalize any variation in the soil. Their location should be carefully noted, so that they may be compared with each other and the seed combined after harvesting and weighing. These 17- foot rows contain approximately one-sixteenth of a square v>»\. or of an acre. At a common rate of seeding in sections where are an important crop, 23 bushels to the acre, one-half ounce is sufficient for one of these 17-foot row-. At harvest time tin should again be carefully studied and only the most promising strains retained. Each row should then be harvested, thrashed, and weigl ed, and the weight recorded. ■ 5ft 5Ft I i>. i Diagram showing Hie plan) Ing plan of ><•<■. I plal for the Ira provemeni of <>ais l ■> individual plain selection. 8 IMPROVEMENT OF THE OAT CROP. The test the third year is along similar lines. Two or more 17-foot rows should be planted of each of the strains which yet remain, and the check rows should be used as before. In addition, however, plats should be planted of several of the most promising strains, so that they may be increased as rapidly as possible. At harvest time dis- cards should be made as, in previous years, and the remaining rows and plats should again be harvested, thrashed, and weighed. The number of strains should now be considerably reduced, and by com- parison of the previous records with those of this year and the dis- carding of those strains which do not show up well a further reduc- tion can be made. The fourth year the few remaining strains are again tested as be- fore, and plats of considerable size should be planted of those with the best records. After the harvest of this year, all should be dis- carded except those of outstanding excellence. These best strains should now be in sufficient quantity for field tests, and if of real value should be distributed to neighbors and tested under varying con- ditions to demonstrate their general adaptability. If the strain proves its excellence over a considerable area, a name should be given it, to prevent confusion with other varieties. New strains selected either from the general crop or from the row tests may of course be introduced at any time by starting them in the 5-foot rows and adding them to the general series of 17-foot rows the following year. The diagram (fig. 1) shows, in the upper portion, the 17-foot " progeny " rows for comparison of strains, with the two " guard " rows and a "check" row at each end of some standard variety, and every tenth row from the first cheek a cheek row. The lower portion shows these 17-foot rows divided into three 5-foot rows with alleys 1 foot wide for the planting of the individual selections. It is from these rows that the strains are taken in succeeding years to the progeny rows. A permanent record should be kept of the different strains. This record should show the essential facts regarding the performance of a given strain from the time the original selection is made. For convenience, each selection should be given a number, and the num- ber should be retained until the strain is discarded or given a permanent name as a variety worthy of distribution. If selections are made from any of the strains they should retain the original number anil be given a second selection number as well. Thus, if selections are made from strain 25 they should be designated as 25-1, 25-2, 25-3, etc. If several varieties are used, either the name of the variety should be used with the selection, or the variety should be designated by a number which precedes the selection mim- ic Ir. 30] ! \l PBi »V1 Ml \ I OF III I. "A I CRi IP. 9 ber. Thus, we may have Silvermine 1. Silvermine 2, etc., or 1-1, 1 2, etc. In tlii- latter case the first figure of each couple designates the numbei of the variety, and the second figure the selections of that variety. Selections of variety No. 2 would be numbered 2 1. ■_ 2, etc. 1 lie sample page from a notebook shown as Table I. which ran be made by ruling vertical columns on ruled paper, illustrates the system of numbering and the essential notes which should be taken cadi season on all the selections. These notes should lie kept in ;: permanent cover, such as the loose-leaf binders which are usually obtainable at stationery stores. Tabli [. Record of mil Helvetian* far inns. ni III 5 115. MUM- tc> number. Planted. 519 521 52 1! . ' lis. 119 I J 3 4 3 I : [leaded Ripened. Rust. 1 1 1 •1 14 1 11 ! 11 (5 15 6 12 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 . cl. 85 85 90 80 Lodg- 98 80 Til 90 Shat- tering. .cl. 100 100 UN) 100 I Kill 95 grain. Oz. 14.5 15 13 12 14 12 15 11 II 10.5 V, No \ . No \,, \,, No. A.s shown in the above table the rows of the plat arc numbered consecutively, with every tenth row a- a check. Selection 111 and three selections from it were planted. 1. 3, and 5. This indicates that selections 2 and I. and selections of this strain bearing higher numbers than .'>. have been discarded in previous years. Of strain L15 we have two selections, 1 and I. and a reselection of I. recorded as 1 L5 — J 1. No further -election- have been made of -t rain- 1 Is and 119. The selections which have the numbers L16 and 117 have been discarded. All dates arc recorded by figures representing the month and day of the month. Thus, the dale of planting was 1 3, or April (the fourth month i 3. Resistance to rust is recorded as the percentage of freedom from this disease. Resistance to lodging and shattering are entered in like manner. Selection No. Ill 1. which lodges very little, i- marked '. ,v percent resistant, while 111 :;. in which there is considerable lodging, is given only v <> per cent. The yield is recorded as ounces of thrashed ^rain to the row. Quality may be indicated by the market grades No. 2, No. 3, etc., or b> percentages. 10 IMPROVEMENT OF THE OAT CROP. HYBRIDIZATION. Few hybrid varieties of oats have } r et been produced, practically all of the work of improvement having been accomplished by selec- tion. Hybridization of the small grains is comparatively difficult, and the problem of selection so complicated that the farmer is hardly justified in attempting to hybridize. F'or the present at least, while there is so much to be accomplished by selection, his efforts can well be confined to that field, leaving the hybrid problem to the professional breeder. VARIETIES. A brief list of the varieties which are most likely to lend themselves to efforts toward their improvement folloAvs. Many others might be mentioned. For fall sowing in the South : Virginia Gray and hardy strains of Rustproof. For spring sowing in the South: Burt, Rustproof. For the Central States (from Pennsylvania westward to Colorado): Sixty- Day, Kherson, Silvermine, Joannette, Early Champion. Siberian. For the Northern States (including the intermountain area and Pacific North- west) : Swedish Select. Early Gothland, American Banner, Lincoln. Progress, Sixty-Day, White Russian, Ligowo, Big Four. CONCLUSIONS. The unsatisfactory yield and quality of the oat crop in recent years show the necessity for the improvement of this grain. This improve- ment may be along the lines of disease resistance, strength of straw, earliness, quality, or yield, or several of these may be combined. In any event, yield is the essential basis of selection. Mechanical selec- tion and the introduction of seed from foreign countries or from sec- tions more favorable for the production of the oat crop are but tem- porary makeshifts. The use of the seed plat usually gives good results, but permanent improvement is best effected by pedigreed strains produced from individual plants. A large number of these selections should be made and tested, (he poorer ones discarded, and the very best increased as rapidly as possible. Where one of the pedigreed strains proves of exceptional value it should be widely tested and eventually named and introduced as a new variety. At present the farmer is advised to leave hybridization of the small grains to the professional breeder. Approved : James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture. Washington, D. C, April ..'}. 1909. [Cir. 30] o UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 3 1262 08928 9630 ,',i\ j^,.^.-*.-