Abstract

In preliminary yield trials of crops the plant breeder has often to handle a large number of types although only a few of these can be carried forward. It is a practical consideration that the methods adopted at such a stage allow examination of as wide a range of material as possible with the minimum of labour and with- out loss of efficiency. Each crop sets its own problem in this connection. In Bengal gram (Cicer arietinum) for instance, the actual determina- tion of the yield requires the stripping and threshing of the pods and will take time and labour when the number of plants is large. Any method which will do away with much of this labour will be an improvement. Towards this end, other more easily determinable characters indicative of yield were investigated. The results of such a study are presented in this paper, from work done at the Nandyal Agricultural Research Station during the year 1932-33.

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