The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-01-16


possible. The cities and towns of the
west, for example, should, by means
of mechanic art schools, aid
in the promotion of manufacturing at
home many of those articles which we
now purchase from the east and from
Europe We should thus save some
thing on the cost of freight and make a
home market for food and clothing
products used by the people who now
work in the factories of the east and of
the old world.
Greatly increasing the educational
facilities of our industrial people in
country and in town life will be more
than repaid in the increased production
of each state and the entire country.
In other words, it will pay in dollars
and cents several times over; but OF
far greater Importance are the better
facilities for living, the enlarged out
look of the people, the more enjoyable
occupation, the stronger life and the
better preparation for the worlds work.
Americas strength does not lie mainly
in her army and navy, but should lie
even more in the powerful Industrial,
social and moral forces. The physical,
mental, moral and economic strength
of a rapidly multiplying people is, IN
the last analysis, what gives security
at home and world power to our ma
ton.
Next to the improvement of men, our
field crops represent the largest division
of our interests which we can hope to
improve by modern methods, while our
domestic animals are nearly as i'm
portant as our plants. The field crop
products of America aggregate some
where near two billion dollars in value
annually. One per cent of two billion
is twenty million; one-tenth of one per
cent is two million. The field crop
products of Kansas approximate one
hundred million dollars annually. One
per cent of one hundred million is one
million; one-tenth of one per cent Of one
hundred million is one hundred thous-
and.
A THOUSAND PER CENT PROFIT.
mo plant breeder of experience, who
with limited means has added largely to
the value of a field crop or horticul-
tural crop, will for a moment doubt the
economy of the proposition of state
like Kansas using 100000 annually in
the breeding of her field crops to make
them yield more. On the average, every
dollar wisely expended Will annually
bring back at least SO, which is 1000
per cent. Your corn, your wheat, your
oats, your barley, your flax, your al
falfa, your clover, your grasses, are, as
it were, your machines with which to
collect soil fertility, air substance and
sunshine in forms suitable for food and
clothing. Your plants are great storage
batteries into which to collect energy
from the sun; and these great machines
should be made as efficient as mans
wisdom and energy and patience can
make them.
THAT strange thing, called life, which
directs the subtle forces of this vast
manufacturing device, is in some of it's
attributes, beyond our comprehension.
But in important ways we have learned
to control and direct the living forces
which impel these storage batteries to
do their work. We can command more
work, and we can command better work.
That is, we can increase yields and we
can improve the quality of the product.
I'VE have found. for example. that
in one plant or animal in tens of thou
sands or hundreds of thousands. there
is unusual breeding power. There is
an occasional generative cell which
produces an individual plant or animal
with unusual power to project its eff
cheney into a race which we can null
tiply and substitute for the less val
liable original race from which it
Sprang. Thus, one wheat grain, spring
ing from an almost microscopic cell,
can be and has been made into a COM
mercial variety covering hundreds Of
thousands and even millions of acres.
and earning added millions of dollars
annually. There is evidence which
makes it seem probable that each one
of our comparatively few great COM
mercial wheatS sprang from a single
seed. In corn it is practicable to make
new and improved variety not from
a single seed, because this species,
through long custom, requires open or
cross pollination; but from several seeds
a new variety can be made. Here the
problem is more complex, because we
must secure several original mother
plants, whose blood will make a blend
ed blood strain of high average eff
cheney to increase yields of. value per
acre.
81 know of no fact of larger import
than this: that by seeking that indi-
vidual among tens or hundreds of
thousands with greatest projected eff
cheney, and multiplying it's blood so as
to take the place of the parent variety
or seed, improvements can be made
adding 10 or more per cent. to the value
of the product. If it be true that the
state or government can set into op-
GRAFTON plan for finding these Occa-
| sional germs, testing them, accumu-
lating proof of their value, and diStrib-
uting them-along with the proof so
that people will have that faith which
Will cause them to use these newly i'm
proved varieties and breeds-state and
! government action should be at once
taken. If it be true that American an
1mal and plant products can be SO i'm
proved as to yield an increased annual
income of hundreds of millions of dol
| lars, this is a question of larger eco
to the American army and navy, or the
building of good roads. both matters
worthy our keenest concern.
BREEDING WHEAT.
ITO breed wheat. or any other crop,
| for increased value per acre, especial
/ s1ItSHiOH must De given 10 the ecOnO-
mic or intrinsic characteristics. Botani-
cal characteristics figure to but a slight
! extent The day of chief interest in
| studying botanical characteristics OF
mummified plant specimens is past.
| We are turning to the measures of liv-
| ing plant powers, that we may choose
| those blood lines which will be most
valuable to man. We are learning that
even from a scientific point of view
| our economic plants are of vastly
greater import than wild species. We
are turning from historic evolution &c
! evolution under the direction of mans
intelligence. We have proven Darwin
main contention enough thousands OF
| times. Living things are capable OF
| evolution when left to themselves. Man
! has devised methods of greatly accel-
Grating the evolution of plants and an
! imaIs and the laws of hersditv are he