INCREASED PRODUCTION 



351 



Increased production. In 



almost all plants and food 

 animals, a great increase in 

 production has been brought 

 about and there is still room 

 for much i m p r o \' e m e n t . 

 Careful selection of the best 

 types for breeding is a ^'ery im- 

 portant factor here. Burbank 

 increased the food content of 

 the potato by 25 per cent ; 

 Kanred wheat, merely through 

 vigilant selection of the most 

 productive plants for seed, sur- 

 passed its parent wheat by an 

 increased yield per acre. The 

 average cow's milk will pro- 

 duce 125 pounds of butter per 

 year, but a Jersey cow will 

 usually produce over 1000 

 pounds of butter in a year. 

 A 300-acre field in southern 

 Illinois was planted with im- 

 proved corn and yielded 30 

 bushels more per acre than 

 the fields planted with the 

 ordinarv seed. 



Methods of breeding. 

 Hybridizatioti is the crossing of 

 two individuals carrying unlike 

 characters. This has the ad- 

 vantage of combining the desirable characters found in the two 

 individuals into one individual. 



This barred Plymouth Rock hen laid 287 eggs 

 in a year. The American egg record for three 

 consecutive years was 282 eggs and 281 eggs 

 made by two Barred Plymouth Rocks, and 303 

 eggs from a hen which was a cross between a 

 white leghorn and a Barred Plymouth Rock. 



