El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-08-26


w matrimonial bureau. He
makes marriages by the hundreds
month. and adds to his children by the
tens of thousands year. He not only
marries those within his own bounda-
ries, but he has his agents travelling
at government expense far and wide
over the world searching out new
brides and groonns to mate with them
These marriages; however, are not
of men and women, but of plants. IT
is strange to think Of plants marrying,
but the vegetable world is male and
female 1t is made up of such matches.
and from them are coming forth new
and valuable plant children each day.
Every one has heard of Luther Bur-
bank, who married the plum TO the
apricot and made the plumcot, who
made the white blackberry out of the
brunette and a cross. and who took
the ox-eyed daisy and by uniting it
with other varieties created the great
Shasta flower, which is many times
larger. The agricultural department
has a half dozen men who have done
as much original work as Luther Bur-
bank, and there are scores of others
scattered over the country, at our state
and national experiment stations, who
are yearly producing grains and fruits
which will add enormously TO our
national wealth
Oar New Baby wheats.
Take the matter of wheat The agri-
cultural matchmakers OF Minnesota
have done wonders in their marriages
of those servants of man They have
crossed the various wheats. and they
have now 1000 hybrid babies which
they are testing. They have produced
one offspring which has been already
scattered over J. 0O0, GOO acres. and an
other. which is being planted upon $780,
600. Some of the new wheats- are show
ing gains of from two to five bushels
per acre, and some have averaged as
high as AZ bushels The old wheats
beside them have been giving only
Is or 20. If the wheat crop OF the
United States could be increased only
three bushels per acre it would add at
least s100, 100000 per year to our re-
ceipts from that source.
The grains used in producing these
hybrids have pedigrees dating far back
into history. They have been collected
from all parts of the world. Among
the wheats now used are some sent
by Mr. Aronson from Palestine. He
has discovered there wild wheat
whose ancestors are supposed to have
grown in the Garden of Eden and there
is another wheat which has been found
in the tomb of an Egyptian mummy
more than 1000 years old
Among the new varieties which we
are now planting is that brought IN
from the dry lands bordering the Sa-
hara in southern Algeria This is
the durun or macaroni wheat which
NJ A. Carleton, one of our agricultural
explorers, sent to be tested upon the
serui-arid lands Of our middle west.
IT was tried in Kansas, Nebraska anu
Texas. and the first crop was .o'VoV
bushels. That was eight or nine years
ago The second crop was over
: non ooo- and we are now raising 3d.
mn 600 bushels. about one-half OF
which is exported to Europe and some
70 the very country whence the wheat
came. That wheat all comes from lana
which would not grow wheat before
New Grains for the Farmer.
Similar experiments are being made
by our experts of the agricultural
department in almost every grain
known TO man. New grains and new
varieties of the old grains are being
gathered from all over the world ana
drought here for testing and uniting
with other varieties. This is espec-
tally so of corn. oats, barley and rice.
Our corn crop last year was worth
over 81 500 600 600. Its value was more
than a dozen times that Of our gold
and silver output, and the amount
raised was so great that it would have
filled a solid four horse wagon tram
reaching from here to the moon II the
skies could be bridged and the corn
taken thither- Nevertheless. the corn
~ 1~,~xvf ING
different varieties and planting good
seed This crop could be doubled with
out the addition of one acre TO the
area or adding more fertilizer. All
that is needed is good seed and Guilt
walton and the land will produce from
two To four times what it does now
This matter is understood by our Wen
informed farmers, who belong to the
many corn breeding associations scat
+a,,a5 over the union The varieties
of corn are now as well known as
those of cattle and horses The best
are being crossed and recrosseo, anu
variety may be discovered, Whieh
will be worth great deal OF money
As II is the best seed brings hlgh
price in the market
plants for Our Dry Lands.
lam told at the agricultural depart
effort to discover new cereals Tor the
6rv farms of the west. Many choice va
rieties have been introduced, and some
of these are yielding from 20 TO 90 per-
cent more than those of the past A
great deal of work is being done In
millets and sorghums, and Uncle sam
agents in Manchuria have sent several
of these from that country They are
also using the Siberian sorghums and
kovliangs from China These niilets
have been married TO others. and their
children may be better adapted TO our
soil and climate than the parents from
faraway Asia
We are introducing alfalfas from ST.
IBERIA which Withstand the cold and
drouth and also drouth resisting trees
which will produce stock food and
fruit. Among the fruit trees is an olive
which grows in the half desert parts
of North Africa, where the rainfall for
years at a stretch is often less than 10
inches In the same connection is the
date which is being grown in the
irrigated hot regions of southern Cali
fornia and, Arizona. There is also a
large frrited, dry land Chinese date,
which we are grating and which seems
to promise a new dried fruit industry.
The Marriage of the Rice.
Uncle Sam is giving new crops to the
1aodS we'll Tn n dry H iS