2/2 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



nation. A farmer spends a lot of money in putting fertilizer 

 on the land, spends a lot of time getting the ground ready, and 

 then he puts in poor seed. The result is a tremendous waste. 



Now, in the beginning, all plants — like all animals — are the 

 product of two forces — those conditions which surround them 

 — water, plant food, the sunshine and so on, have an influence 

 upon the character of the plants, and in the seed through hered- 

 ity. Some of these environmental factors are within our con- 

 trol, for we cultivate our plants, remove the weeds, etc. 



Then our plants are the product of another force which w^e 

 cannot see ; which is very subtle and, in most cases, is over- 

 looked; I refer to the force of heredity. Suppose you are go- 

 ing to start a good dairy. You build a good barn, expect to 

 give your animals the best of care and the best of feed ; then 

 you go to somebody and say, 'T want fifty calves. I don't care 

 what they are." Of course, you may name some breed like 

 the Jersey, or something else, but you merely want calves to 

 put into this barn in which you have put so much expense. Is 

 this not what we are doing with seed? We do not know wheth- 

 er they have had any breeding when we buy them. This is 

 the point I want to get at. 



Why is it that plant breeding is so relatively new? Because 

 we have been giving our attention largely to the -external 

 factors surrounding the plants and less attention to the breed- 

 ing. That is logical. We have found now that when we give 

 the plants good care, there is another factor — that of heredity — • 

 which prevents them from yielding well until it has been cor- 

 rected. It is one of the chief factors to be considered. 



There is another thing which we must bear in mind, also ; 

 that is, all plants are capable of further improvement. All of 

 our cultivated crops have gone through a state of evolution. 

 The potato has come from a plant found in the mountains of 

 South America, where there is a cool climate; high altitude, 

 and a large amount of moisture. This original plant has a 

 large number of tubers, half the size of a hen's egg. Now, 

 man, through the years, has taken these tubers and, consciously 

 or unconsciously, chosen the best until he has brought the potato 

 to the stage where we know it today. Have we come to the end 

 of this development? I think not. The original home of corn 

 is in Mexico ; it was pod corn, the individual kernels being en- 



