. Annual report of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). Plant-Breeding for Farmers. 155 In the production of new varieties, the breeder would expect to use careful methods of hybridization and selection, but in general these methods are too complex for ordinary use. However, the writer be- lieves that it is possible even for practical farmers, to produce varieties of value and to greatly improve the yield of their own crop. There are three simple methods of wheat-breeding which
. Annual report of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, Cornell University. Agricultural Experiment Station; Agriculture -- New York (State). Plant-Breeding for Farmers. 155 In the production of new varieties, the breeder would expect to use careful methods of hybridization and selection, but in general these methods are too complex for ordinary use. However, the writer be- lieves that it is possible even for practical farmers, to produce varieties of value and to greatly improve the yield of their own crop. There are three simple methods of wheat-breeding which appeal to the writer as practical for farmers gener- ally to undertake. One of these methods of improve- ment is the selection of chance variations or sports and the propagation from them of improved varieties. A second method is the sys- tematic selection of the best yielding plants from a well known race to secure more highly productive strains, and a third method is the selection of largs heads or ears for seed. Following is a discussion of these three methods. Nezv varieties from chance variations or sports of zvlicat. Selecting the good plants, first generation.—A consider- able number of our best va- rieties or races of wheat have been produced by selecting in the field or along the roadsides, individual plants which because of their. Fic. 141.— J'ariaiioiis in sij:e of heads of Gold Coin Zi'licat. Three-fourths natural size. marked superiority were recognized as especially good plants and pre- served for seed purposes. Marked variations or sports possessing improved characters occa- sionally occur in fields of cereals and these are sometimes found by ob- serving growers and developed by selection into valuable races. ATany of our well known races of wheat have apparently origina- ted in this way. The Tappahannock wheat which, in 1872, was consid- ered to be a valuable race was found in 1854 by a Mr. Boughton, of Essex. Please note that these images are extracted fro
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