The Greeley tribune., 1911-01-19
,o,,,xc THE FUTURE FOOD
PROBLEMS Bl FAHM'N"
,rrom January Century,


rha fundamental problem OF
,orlind is to produce Iood LOT ~
soI, This food must grow o". y.
the earth and in the sea. IN 'he '"s
ar,lvsis. It all depends on the Nese
,ah,a cover OF the earth. HOW u
make the vegetable kingdom h'o,e
rrodueti,e to the needs OF man
there ore a problem that concerns
al, rerscps who at any time i've :"
the world. ..r
Great and serious study has peeh
a,e ON To this fundamental propien
in the last century. and the proo
Iem must increase in importance as
q, erv new generation adds 10 the
emulation of earth. We are eradi-
eating pestilence and insah'ta''on'
and are beginning to think OF put.
ting an end to war; all TINS snou'u
allow the human race to increase
rauidly in the future. But the 'u'ure
increase will probably depend more
m social and economic factors thah
on rhysical factors alone anu .ne
foremost economic factor is the
facility or the difficulty with winch
the race may be fed.
The plant breeders are OF TWO
grours, those who are not cohhee.eu
with an organization. but VINO prose-
cute their work en- their own re-
sources. usually in connection with
nursery or seed business. ana those
who are attached to some coiieee'
exreriment station. or government
department.
AS an unattached plant BREEDER
Charles C. Patten o. Charles City'
Ia should be mentioned, both be-
cause his work is deserving ana be-
cause it is of such lcng standing that
| can write of results actually ac-
complished.
MIR. Patten was farm boy in
northern New York. reared in the
general mixed husbandry of that
regicn. At an early age he went to
Wisconsin. where. being impressed
with the need of apples specially
| adorted to the climate, he began to
raise seedlings. In 1854 he removed
10 Charles City. and settled on the
raw prairie near the town; In 1855
he established a nursery business.
AS he attempted to supply the needs
Of the new and untried region, he
'ouni himself compelled TO test great
numbers of varieties OF fruits and
ornamental plants from the older
country. and also to attempt to breed
new ones that might more perfectly
meet the conditions OF very cold win
ters with dry. killing winds. The
result has been a production OF the
Patten Greening, now standard
apple OF the northern Iowa -Wiscon'
sin Minnesota region tor what ma!
be called the box elder country and
several other accepted varieties
There are also big numbers OF new
things yet awaiting fuller tests Il
is not often that a man has more
than one accepted new variety t
his credit.
In the region that have indi
Gated. the Baldwin. Greeping, North
ern Spy, and other familiar eastern
apples. are killed by the winters. Mr.
Patten observed that trees ant
shrubs which did we'll even in hi'
Wisconsin experience were lackin,
in hardness in northeastern Iowa
He pondered all these facts. ant
worried out theory or plan OF pro
cedure. 1t was clearly necessary t
secure new stock or race Of fruits
There are still several theories a
to the best way Of doing this will
apples. One plan is to import va
rieties Of fruits direct from n coun
try Of similar climate: the noted in
PRODUCTION of Russian apples 80 G
40 years ago was the working on
of this idea. Another theory is t