The St. Mary banner., 1902-01-25
|THB BREEDING OP PLANTS.
IA FASCINATING STORY AND AN
ENCHANTING PASTlME.
How Fields OF Corn Have Been Made to
Largely Increase Their Yield-Foreign
Experience-WilI Receive More Atten.
ton in the Future.

tOmlc importance, the breeding OF plants
is a fascinating study and a most en-
chanting pastime to those interested IN
1.-THE welfare of the work. The Depart
iment of Agriculture has issued a bulletin
on the subject which says: at is one oi
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 plansS
than in America. In two towns in Ger
many there are nearly thirty large seed
firms, with all aggregate capital invest
ment probably five times as great as the
capital Of the general seed firms of AM
erica. In that Country owners of large
farms breed and raise seeds OF wheat.
oats, rye. sugar bccts. potatoes and other
crops. They get better profits from this
work and they build on their farms
chemical and seed laboratories where the
seed selection is 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 Unitel States it is below fifteen
bushels. This difference is in part due
to the better preparation OF soil and the
moister climate; but doubtless it is also
due in part to the selection and breeding
Of wheat during a 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 i'll volume
gives opportunity for wide study. Es-
pecially as an art does the breeding OF
plants give the opportunity for the de
velopment Of skill of high order.
The breeders OF plants. as we'll as the
breeders of animals. need to make more
of study Of records. Of relationships
in word. design. collect and study pedi-
grees of the plants and animals with
which they deal.
"In America Indian corn has been
bred for numerous conditions. Early |
large-yielding dent varieties have finally
been bred for southern Minnesota ard |
other northern States.
What farmer would think Of return
ing to the smaller ears of fifty or one |
hundred years ago? Yet it is quite pos
sible in another half century, by more |
carefully breeding and with greater az
tention to the compo: ition and quality |
of Our corn. to make as important I'M
provements as have been made in the
past 1t is probably safe to say that the
farmers, by adding 25 per cent more to
the care and labor of rotating crops.
the soil and cultivating the
corn, could secure 25 per cent. larger
yields. And it is probably just as safe
to say that if one-tenth of per cent
Of the corn crops value were devoted by
the government to breeding this plant so
as to better adapt it to each locality, 10
per cent more could be added to the
yield While better farming and better
cultivation are ultimately the more i'm
oortant in the aggregate, plant breeding
IS relatively more important until our
crops are brought UP more nearly to
heir possible maximum of yield.
"Our ten leading field crops in the
United States yield an annual income
which is valued on the farm at something
ike $4,000 ooo, 900. No man who has
and intelligently tried to in
,rease the yields of any one of these
,rops will doubt the assertion that by
breeding alone, other conditions remain
ng the same, an average increase. Of s
Ter cent. could be added to the Yields
If these ten crops in twenty years by
line Of thorough experimentation.
Prices remaining the same. this would
id $1oo 900 900 annually to the aggre-
:ate valuation Of these crops; or, in
wen.y succeeding years, S2,oooo ooo.o 900
{ to the increase in value of our princi- ;
'al field crops are added the increase in
alues of orchard. garden. greenhouse
nd forest crops, we will have a much
reater aggregate gain All these crops
re capable Of Improvement by breed
ng, the same as corn and wheat. and the II
eneral principles to be followed are the
anne throughout. In many of the flower
nd vegetable crops changes have already
cen produced by brea ding that are far
reater than the anticipated changes in
ne yields of corn and wheat.
In the case of sugar beets. for ex-
mple, the percentage of sugar in the
nice Of the roots has been increased
robably 100 per cent. by rigid scientific
lethods practiced orr large and ex-
ensive scale by European seed growers I
his work. started by Vilmorin Of !
rance, has made possible a large in /
ustry, profitable to the farmers and to
and has resulted in much
leaper sugar for the entire world. Here =
5 in other lines of breeding, the prirci- v
les and practice are comparatively
mple ard easily mastered Remove il
ON the domain of abstruse reasoning.
here some teachers of heredity place {
and plant improvement becomes y
ractical business proposition, an i'm "
ortant affair of state."-I -IVrs sL;uoto,