The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1907-01-31

a new environment is clearly enough
revealed in the course of years; but
the PROCESS is slow and selection
along those lines is by no means SO
simple as it may at first
Another important matter to be con
sidered is the fact that not all the
plants growing in a desert region are
desert plants. B~otanists recognize
certain species as distinctly desert
plants a of the provision which
ature has made il their structure.
or in other ways to resist drought
Species of this kind are as much at
home in an arid country as plants
indigenous to a humid region are at
home there. An extreme type of this
class is seen in i cactus. But there
are many species of ANNALS growing
on the plains and in other parts OF
the arid region which are known to
range all over the eastern part of the
United States. In nearly every parti-
cular plants of this kind growing in
the arid region are the same in struc-
ture of leaf, stem and other parts as
those growing near h Atlantic
coast. Species of this kind have sug-
gested to some botanists that a desert
environment exerts little direct infiu-
ence in the development of species,
since ANIMALS of the kind referred to
have, eventually, been growing in
desert regions for centuries. These
gentlemen make the mistake of not
recognizing that plants of the kind
in question do not belong 10 desert
species at all. They are humid region
plants, and they grow in desert places
soley by reason of the fact that they
are able to take advantage of the
rainy season when, temporarily, the
climate is humid and not arid. The
total life of such plants is embraced
each ear within the period of abun-
dalt rain.
We must secure something better
than this, if we would have a variety
of species of wheat which would be
as much at home as sag brush and
cactus in the arid region. We may
produce a variety which in a large
pei CSuldSS VI the YEARS VIII IHIlSS
just as the little ANIMALS of which l
have been speaking thrive, and yet
it may not be acclimatized to arid
conditions. l think we may say with
confidence that to this latter kind
most of the durums belong, and 1 am
not prepared to claim any more as
yet for my own wheat. But l have
a strong hope, and I think it well
founded, that 1 shall ultimately de-
velop a variety which will be so adj
apted to arid conditions that it will
produce stalk and leaf and later ma
ture it's grain or seed as easily and
as naturally as other varieties do in
the central part OF the Mississippi val
ley. One of the varieties into which
my wheat has branched exhibits 10
tably more pronounced desert quail
ties than the other, and l ave nc
doubt that still more marked charac-
teristics of the kind desired will nal
hest themselves in course of tune.
That the problem can be successfully
solved l have hardly a shadow of
doubt, and that thus ultimately the
greater part of the arid region will
be reclaimed to profitable. agriculture
is, l believe, true.
Briefly to state what l am doing, |
am experimenting with seven differ
ent kinds of wheat besides the two
varieties into which my own has de
veloped-making nine in all. l began
these experiments in the spring of
1896, starting with eed of the kind
shown as improved fife which l OBJ
tanned from the agricultural college
in Fort Collins. Since 1 have added
the seven other varieties just mention
ed, and also oats, rye n two species
of barley, one being a stock feeding
and the other a mailing kind. l am
also experimenting with sugar beets
with potatoes, with Indian corn, field
peas and Turkestan alfalfa. With all
these, except the potatoes, l have
met with a fairly good Measure of
success. Through the kindness of a
friend 1 recently procured a collection
of grains of the different colored va
rietfes of corn which the Moqui In
dams have grown for hundreds of
years in the dry regions of the South
west, and | am hoping that with it
something of value may be accomplish
ed. l am confident that it would have
to be an exceptionally dry year to
prevent either the rye of the stock
feeding barley which 1 have develop
ed from producing profitable crops
without irrigation. 1t occurs to me
right here to remark that my expert
melts are conducted entirely without
irrigation. 1t has been dry farming
from the beginning, and l have never
yet had a total failure from drought.
Confident that he is Working on the
Right Lines.
I would nave it distinctly understood
that 1 do not claim to have achieved
results as yet OF any great OIL special
value. I am still at work, and have
domO7Strated tn NV 0un Satisfaction