Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1912-09-13
Plant Breeding

roore wonderful than those attributed
10 the genii of Aladdins lamp are he
ing achieved through the work of
Uncle Sans experts in discovering
originating and introducing new and
wonderful food products for the
American people. Though attracting
comparatively little attention. thew
are putting the results of achieve
ments more remarkable than any ner-
rated in the Arabian Nights into the
ordinary city market and corner gro
cery. Few persons realize the ire
mendous value of any new crop or
food product that comes into general
use among the people of the United
states A long list could be made Of
these, each one of which has added
millions of dollars to the wealth Of
the country. While the names Of
Edison, Bell and other wonder-work-
ers in the mechanical field are famil-
lar to everybody, probably not one
American in 10000, for instance
ever heard of Ephriam Bull The
Rumph brothers are unknown and
the name of William Saunders m cans
nothing to the average man And yet
these are all men whose inventions
have been as valuable to the country
as those of their more famous fellows
and they were the forerunners of 9th
ers who are continually adding mil
lions to the wealth and resources of
the nation. Their discoveries in the
agricultural world are comparable to
the inventions of the telephone and
the typesetting machine in the world
of technology. They reaped no profit
from their discoveries. But the
American farmer has gained through
them many millions of dollars annu-
ally.
The vine of the Chautauqua grape
belt, producing annually 20O,O00,OO0
pounds of grapes, come almost en-
from the cuttings of a Seeding plant
ed by Ephriam Bull in Concord.
Mass, 68 year ago. His discovery
was the famous Concord grape. The
Rumph brothers evolved, from a sin
gle tree of an imported Chinese cling
peach, in Georgia in 1870, the ia
nous liberia and Belle varieties,
which have since earned fortunes for
growers. And Saunders, from the
importation of a single bunch of
scions from Bahia, Brazil, became the
dlscoverer of the navel orange and
the founder of groves such as the
world never saw before
The scientific breeding of plants is
startlingly new. OF course the older
nations succeeded in improving their
plants to some degree. Wheat, for
instance, as far back as We know
was an improved" grain. The origi-
nal wild wheat from which it is de-
rived has long since vanished from
the face of the earth.
Plant breeding has progressed
rapidly-has gone far. 1t has given
us the spineless cactus, the seedless
orange and apple. One of its largest
triumphs is the seedless grape. 1t
is recognized as the basis of progress
stands the scientist with test tube and
jar, the modern substitute for Alad-
din's lamp, and with his theories of
fertilization and cross breeding.
Every state in the Union maintains
Its corps of scientists to improve its
grains, its vegetables, its fruits. And
the national government spends mil
lions of dollars a year conducting
breeding experiments for plants on a
scale never attempted before. Uncle
Sam rakes the world for new fathers
and mothers for his plant stock.
missionary up some remote stream in
central China gets a letter from the
department of agriculture requesting
MIN to ship home seeds of some fruit
known to exist in his locality. And
these seeds become the mothers OF a
new American fruit or a harder
breed of peach, pear or plum. The
american consul in some distant
tropical island is impressed into serY-
Ice to send in slips of some bush or
shrub of value which may subse-
quently spread over our southern
states.
The sugar beet requires unusual
care In its cultivation. The seed IS
drilled in rows, several beet seeds be-
ing planted to the inch. When the
Oeets are up laborers go through the
iieids with hoe and "block' them
out' leaving a single small bunch
every eight inches. And here the
trouble comes. For beet seed is
rarely single seed. 1t normally con
'oins several beet germs, perhaps as