THE IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS 579 



problem in all its phases is a duty that we can not shirk. The high 

 cost of living at the present time and the simpler living that thousands 

 of families have been compelled to adopt is a reminder of the necessity, 

 even to the present generation, of a careful study of the existing condi- 

 tions. 



The problem of all problems confronting us is the necessity of in- 

 creasing the production of food stuffs. How can this be done? Ob- 

 viously the pro1)lem can be attacked from many sides, but the side that 

 I desire to emphasize is the conservation of the best breeding stock of 

 plants and animals. This seems a simple matter, but I am sure that 

 the far-reaching possibilities of such conservation are not understood 

 and are beyond our conception at the present time, as our viewpoint is 

 necessarily limited by our present knowledge. Nevertheless, as judged 

 by our present knowledge, the possibilities are so great as to place 

 this factor, I believe, among the important features of the conservation 

 movement. 



AYhat do we not owe to our domesticated and improved plants and 

 animals? They are the greatest heritage that has come down to us 

 from our ancestors. If the cultivated varieties and breeds of wheat, 

 oats, corn, cotton, potatoes, cattle, sheep, hogs and horses were all de- 

 stroyed from the earth and we were forced to go back to wild nature 

 and begin the improvement over again, it is probable that the world 

 would be almost depopulated and that the progeny of the few hardy 

 individuals that survived would, in the centuries that followed, repeat 

 the history of plant and animal improvement that has taken place in 

 the past. Doubtless, however, new plants and animals now unknown 

 to us would be the successful ones in the new evolution. That we now 

 cultivate wheat, oats, corn and the like is probably in large measure 

 due to the accident that attempts to artificially cultivate plants started 

 in regions where the wild ancestors of these plants were native. 



In many cases the wild ancestors of our cultivated plants are not 

 positively known. It is not probable that the ancestral types have be- 

 come extinct, but that the cultivated forms have been so greatly modi- 

 fied that the relationship can not now be recognized with certainty. If 

 ^gilops ovata, a wild grass of southern Europe, is the original ancestral 

 form of wheat, as is supposed by some botanists, we have very many na- 

 tive grasses in various parts of the United States, which in an unim- 

 proved state have much larger grains and would seem to be equally 

 worthy of cultivation and improvement. If Teosinte (Euclcma luxuri- 

 ans), a wild native grass of Mexico, is the original wild ancestor of corn, 

 as is believed by many scientists because of the fact that it is a native of 

 the region where corn was first cultivated, is known to be subject to the 

 same diseases, such as smut, and above all from the fact that it hybri- 

 dizes readily with com, we have an unpromising grass, so far as its 



