The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1913-04-19
CROP IMPROVEMENT
THROUGH PROPER BREEDING

to strains approaching the long fiber
type. There are winter varieties.
There are strains which ripen early. |
there are spring varieties which Tipen
very late and are always frosted:
there are strains or types which
never ripen their bolls at h time
time, and others which ripen all at the
same time.
There are all ranges and types Of
branching, from the type which starts
from the junction of the seed leaf on
the stem only, to those which branch
only from the upper portions. There
are others which cast their seed aft
err the manner of the witch hazel, by
the bursting open of the bolls and
those which hold on very tightly under
all weather conditions. There are wide
leaved varieties and narrow leaved
varieties. There arc strains which
show marked resistance to rust and
others which in the present of rust
cannot maintain their foliage past the
b~lossOming period, and as We know
now there are strains which may wen
resist root diseases which have lately
been made known as flax tired, land
to such extent as to produce a crop
in excess Of the normal on old worked
lands.
Indeed, this list Of contrasting char
acters might be multiplied to almost
any ChLttt ny al ODSBTN lIB lINEEll~
gator. There is an unlimited field for
the s~o-called correlation of characters
for those who believe in such phe-
nomena. | prefer to think of them as
characters which seem to be in op-
position to each other. Indeed, like
every other native plant which man
has not worked upon n acted upon
through his selective influence to any
large extent. the fax crop show an
extremely wide variation of charac-
tiers to such extent that me may truly
say that, without stretch of words,
there never was a fax plant like any
other flax plant, and l may add further
that there is probably no form of cult
waited plant in which the individual
differences of plants stand out in a
more pronounced manner
Like other plants and animals the
tendency to breed true to character is
stronger and more pronounced in the
fax plant than the tendency to vary,
and we may go ahead selecting any
manner Of breeding we may see fit,
with a confident feeling that If we get
a good thing, it may be held to its
present stage Of usefulness and may
be improved upon from veal to year.
/ would not make this statement so
strong If / had not had to work it out
on flax and had the flax crop prove it
to me within the last few years. in
spite Of my early training and desires
to believe the other, the opposite.
Last, but not least, there is yet the
possibility Of improving the crop
through a process in agriculture which
is as old as the world, but which |
claim the honor of having stated in a
clear cut manner, namely through the
propagation Of disease for the purpose
of the elimination Of the weak.
Stated in another way this Is but
the survival of the fittest in cropping
brought about through the special pro-
visions of disease producing conditions,
but the process is nothing more than
reversing the breeding processes as
they have been applied by agricuItuF-
lists or ~agronomists in all times past.
They have usually commended that to
procure a good type of seed through
breeding n must furnish the mother
plants with the best possible environ
ment OF soil as to fOod supply, drain
age n mechanical conditions. and
arrange for the best sort Of atmos-
pheric environment possible. The pro-
cess Of survival as used in our breed
ing garden reverses this whole pro-
cess and uses only ordinary methods
of tllage, no better nor worse, and in
PRODUCES into the soil all the known
elements of disease and plant d%estruc-
ton which would tend to destroy the
crop. his Is a type or n mill
which eliminates not only the poor
type Of seeds, but the plants which
are unable to meet the conditions of
the environment. and we have left a
less number to select from. The seeds
OF these are then placed back on the
same hard, harsh conditions.
Working on this method and conin-
ing ourselves quite strictly to the pure
pedigreed types, we have developed a
number of strains of fax which are
now not only sufficiently resistent to
wilt to give a perfect stand on the
sickest ground, provided the tillage
is reasonably arranged, but also so
markedly resistant TO rust that it prac-
tically makes no showing upon the
stem, under the worst possible wealth
er conditions for its development.
Under this method, never allowing
the plants to grow on any other than
fiaX-sick ground which has been con-
~tinuously in fax for a period of seven
teen years, ground on which no ordin-
airy fax could be grown to an extent
equal to three bushels per acre dur
ing the seventh year Of continuous
c~ropping-on ground which, at the
present time. If a thousand samples Of
! seed were selected from all of the flax
producing districts Of the world, prob
ably not ten samples would have but
q few individual plants remaining aft
err the first two or three weeks of
planting time. This is no guess, be-