Experiment Station Record 7: 679-680 (1897)

Selection of seed wheat, F. Desprez (Jour. Agr. Prat., 59 (1895), No. 46, pp. 694-698).—Large kernels were selected from a crop grown from large seeds for several years, and likewise small seeds were selected from a crop grown year after year from small seeds. Five varieties were used in this experiment. The average results for 1893, 1894, and 1895 are tabulated, and these give the average weight of the individual seeds and the yield of grain and straw per hectare for the crop from large seed and from small seed.

The average difference in the yield of grain from the use of large seed grown from an ancestry of the same kind was 1,067 to 1,828 kg. of wheat per hectare, according to the variety. The use of large seed gave a crop with kernels larger than those grown from small seed. It was also noted that the large grains germinated better than the small grains, and grew more vigorously, and that the crop from large grains matured better than that from small grains.

In order to determine whether or not it was possible to change the ripening season of a given variety of wheat the author selected the ears which first flowered, and from the same stool those which flowered 6 to 8 days later. By continuing this process for 4 years he succeeded in accelerating or retarding the ripening period of a variety from 4 to 6 days.

Investigations to determine the relative value for seed purposes of grains from the center and from the extremities of the ear afforded inconclusive results as to the yield of straw and grain; however, the specific characters of the variety were best transmitted when the seed grown was chosen from the middle of the ear.

The varieties having the spikelets most closely crowded together were more productive than those in which the arrangement of spikelets was loose.