Evening star., 1901-10-17
THE BREEDING. OF PLANTS
A FASCINATING STUDY AND AN EN-
CHANTING PAsTIME.
How Fields of Corn Have Been Made
to Largely Increase Their Yield
Foreign Experience.

Besides being a subject of vast economic
Importance, the breeding of plants is fas-
cinating study and a most enchanting
pastime to those interested in the welfare
of the work. The Department of Agricul-
ture has issued bulletin on the subject
which says: "It is one of those subjects
In which students like to specialize.
In looking toward the future, it seems
probable that plant breeding will receive
far more attention than heretofore In
European countries much more attention
Is given to the improvement of plants than
in America. In two towns in Germany
there are nearly thirty large seed firms,
with an aggregate capital investment prob
ably five times as great as the capital
of the general seed firms of America. In
that country owners of large farms breed
and raise seeds of wheat, oats, rye, sugar
beets, potatoes and other crops. They get
better profits from this work, and they
build on their farms chemical and seed
done Systematically. Those farmers to
whom they supply seed which will make
their yields larger are also benefited.
I'm England the average yield of wheat
is over thirty bushels per acre, while in the
United States it is below fifteen bushels.
This difference is in part due to the better
preparation of soil and the moister cli-
mate; but doubtless it is also due In part
Ing much longer period than has passed
since wheat was first grown in this new
country.
Breeding plants, since the literature on
the subject is growing in volume. gives op-
portunity for wide study. Especially as an
art does the breeding of plants give the
opportunity for the development of skill
of high order. The breeders of plants
as well the breeders of animals reed
to make more of study of records, CT
relationships; in a word, design, collect
and study pedigrees of the plants and ami
mails with which they deal.
In America Indian corn has been tired
for numerous conditions. Early, large
yielding dent varieties have finally been
bred for southern Minnesota and other
northern states.
What farmer would think of returning
to the smaller ears Of fifty or one hun
dred years ago? Yet it is quite possible in
another half century, by more careful
breeding and with greater attention to the
composition and quality of our corn, to
make as important improvements as have
been made in the past 1t is probably safe
to say that the farmers, by adding % per
cent more to the care and labor of rotating
crops, manuring the soil and cultivating
the corn, could secure % per cent larger
yields. And it is probably just as safe to
say that If one-tenth of l per cent of the
corr crops value were devoted by the gov
ernment to breeding this plant so as to
better adapt 1t to each locality, 10 per cent
more could be added to the yield. While
ultimately the more important in the aggre-
gate, plant breeding is relatively more i'm
portant until our crops are brought up more
nearly to their possible maximum of yield.
Our ten leading field crops in the United
States yield annual income which is
valued on the farm at something like $2,-
OO0,OOO,OOO. No man who has earnestly and
intelligently tried to increase the yields of
any one of these crops will doubt the as
sertion that by breeding alone, other con-
d1t1onS remaining the same, an average in
crease of per cent could be added to the
yields of these ten crops in twenty years by
a line of thorough experimentation. Prices
remaining the same, this would add $780,
100000 annually to the aggregate valuation
of these crops; or, in twenty succeeding
years, $1,000 600. If to the increase in
value of our principal field crops are added
the increase In values of orchard, garden,
greenhouse and forest crops, we will have
much greater aggregate gain. All these
crops are capable of improvement by breed
ing, the same as corn and wheat, and the
general principles to be followed are the
and vegetable crops changes nave already
been produced by breeding that are far
greater than the anticipated changes in the
yields Of corn and wheat.
I'm the case of sugar beetS, for example,
the percentage of sugar in the juice of the
roots has been increased probably 100 per
cent by rigid scientific methods practiced
Oh large and expensive scale by Euro
pean seed growers. This work, started by
Vilmorin of France, has made possible a
large industry, profitable to the farmers
and to manufacturers, and has resulted In
much cheaper sugar for the entire world.
Here, as in other lines of breeding, the
principles and practice are comparatively
simple and easily mastered. Remove 1t
from the domain Of abstruse reasoning,
where some teachers of heredity place it,
and plant improvement becomes practical
business proposition, an important affair Of