The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1907-09-04

From the Hartsville Messenger.
"a paper read before the Darling
ton Agricultural Society at their an
nuai meeting August 18th. 1907. Pub
lished by request.)
Most farmers know. and mary OF
them practice. the essential principles
~ successful animal breeding. They
knov they must breed from the best
individual animals they have or can
set In order to improve their. herds.
They know that animals usually
transmit their more prominent char
octeristies to their progeny and that
these characteristics are more mark
cd In some Of the progeny than In
others
Farmers also know that there Is a
variation In the productive capacity
OF seeds. but few OF them have real
he'd the tremendous difference In the
capacity, of individual plants OF +, va
riety to produce both quantity and
quality.
Prof Hopkins Of the University of
Illinois. speaking OF corn. says: '"The
individuality OF the seed ear becomes
apparent when one field row yields
80 bushels per acre and another ad-
joining row planted from a different
seed ear. but on the same kind of soil
produces 12o bushels per acre. Such
differences are not unusual In breed
Ing plants. Similar differences ore Of
ten seen In different animals. Expert
meets have shown that one cow may
produce $50 pounds of butter fat in
. year. while another COW, even when
consuming the same quantities Of
food. produces $50 pounds OF butter
tat. Nt..ND
Prof Rcyser OF Lincoln. Neb.. says
OF wheat breeding: "we studied all
the progeny Of few mother plants
through three generations and found
that they showed wide variations In
yield and composition. That some
mother plants. although excellent
themselves. produced uniformly very
poor progeny. That some mother
plants produced uniformly good pro-
geny."
In 1902 q number of good cotton
plants were selected on our plantation
and the seed from each planted In a
different row In 1909. The best plants
were again selected that year and
the same method followed every year
until now. The general seed from the
four best plants were tested on our
farm last year and were found to vary
very much In yield--the difference
between the poorest and the best be-
Ing nearly so per cent. This result
was great surprise. as I would have
judged the two varieties TO be about
sQuaily productive. This experiment
n very suggestive. for II the seed
from two fine plants selected for sew
sral generations turn out such a tre-
mendous difference In Yield. how
much greater difference is there In
the yield of average crop seed and
the best pedigreed seed.
My cotton IL becoming more uni
form each year. but still shows varie-
stive. I have a photo with me which
shows how cotton may revert to an
undesirable type.
This spring I got together a number
Of the best seed ears Of corn that
could md and planted a part OF each
ear separately In adjoining rows. The
rows from the different seed ears
show q great diversity of character
istics. While too early to estimate
the yield of the grain. the main fea-
tures OF the plants can now (August
13th) be judged. Some rows have
set their ears over six feet from the
ground and others less than four
feet Some have a tendency to- pro-
duce two ears and others only one.
The largest and finest looking seed
car has produced IA very poor stand
and many of the stalks are deformed.
mention these experiments 20
show that y"u cannot tell positively
from the looks OF the parent plant
whether 'or not II will produce an
abundance Of desirable seed. OF
course. the prosreny Of plants or ami
mails are likely to resemble their pa
rents. but the productive power of
any particular plant or animal can
not be tudsed until tested