SELECTION IN GRAIN-GROWING. 361 



it must be hereditary, and on this fact the whole argument for selected 

 seed-grain rests. 



Let it not be supposed, from what has been stated, that the use of 

 artificial fertilizers is sought to be prejudiced. On the contrary, if im- 

 provement can be secured without them, it will be immensely greater 

 when aided by them. But while the purchase of good seed of pedigree 

 stock in small quantity, though the farmer bought it at six dollars 

 (Major Hallett frequently obtains five), would be a very economical 

 proceeding if he does not use more than two gallons, the cost of which 

 would only be one dollar and a half per acre, whereas buying common 

 seed at one dollar, and using two to three bushels, involves a greater 

 outlay. Therefore, in proposing this reform, it will be seen that it 

 does not mean spending more, but less, on seed. The weeding, if 

 done properly, may cost two dollars per acre ; and if, after this, the 

 grower has any money to spend on fertilizers, let him invest by all 

 means. As a general rule, it may be confidently asserted that what 

 would be saved in the outlay for seed would pay the cost of horse- 

 hoeinsx. 



Considering how rapid is the improvement of the process of selec- 

 tion during the first five years, its effect on the wheat-crop of the 

 country would be enormous. If we take 500,000,000 bushels of wheat 

 as the present product (which is much less than it is), then doubling 

 the crop and adding at the very least fifty per cent improvement in 

 quality to the grain, we should obtain an increase of about $750,000,000, 

 without bringing an additional acre into cultivation. I have not said 

 much of the effect on the corn-crop, but on a crop of 1,750,000,000 

 bushels, at an average value of 38 cents, would, if but fifty per cent 

 increase, in five years could be realized on 27 - 5, be astounding. To- 

 day, the area in corn is not less than 65,000,000 acres ; 12*50 bushels 

 increase, at 40 cents per bushel, would be five dollars an acre, or 

 $325,000,000 : $1,075,000,000 of additional food in the short space of 

 five years would give a new impetus to the milling trade in this coun- 

 try, and the hog-business would grow with a rapidity out of all pro- 

 portion to its past career. Neither steel nor electricity can promise 

 anything so great in so short a time, and no reform accomplished in 

 this century will be able to measure this one. 



Who will be the first to carry out such a scheme ? In the Wash- 

 ington Department of Agriculture and in several other parts of the 

 country, pedigree cereals have been used, but the results have not 

 been taken much advantage of. The experimentalists of the State 

 College farming-stations are especially qualified to lead in so import- 

 ant a work. The time is not far distant when intensive rather than 

 extensive culture must be the rule of American farming. Alreadv, in 

 the East and in the South, men are finding it pays better to cultivate 

 100 acres well than 300 acres carelessly. When the hunger for large 

 areas abates, we may hope to see attention paid to better cultivation. 



