370 Bulletin 313 



the civilized countries of the worid and that it has been cultivated for 

 about two centuries under very widely differing conditions of soil and of 

 climate, we can see that every opportunity possible has been furnished for 

 the stimulation of variations. We know now that a variation once produced 

 is rarely lost in nature, but usually is added to the total character 

 variations of the species. Through many years and over millions and 

 millions of acres, among countless billions of plants, . these variations 

 have been accmnulating, with no attempt having been made to isolate 

 them and use the best for the foundation of improved races for cultivation. 

 Is it any wonder, then, with this great accumulation of material, that by 

 selecting the best variations we get races that yield nearly double the 

 product obtained from the mixture of all sorts of types? Suppose, for 

 comparison, apples had not been bred for the last two centuries and we 

 had a forty-acre orchard planted v\^ith all sorts of variations taken at 

 random, including the worthless wild types and all other sorts such as 

 \70uld have been produced in this period of cultivation without selection. 

 What would be the comparison of value between the crop of such an 

 orchard and the crop from a similar forty-acre orchard planted with 

 Northern Spy or with any one among several hundred of our good modem, 

 varieties ? The crop from the unselected varieties would in large measure 

 be wholly unsalable in our modem markets. Probably not more than 

 one sixth of the crop could be sold for any purpose and it is doubtful 

 whether even one tree on the forty acres would produce a crop that could 

 be compared with the fruit of our modern sorts. If we compare the 

 results obtained in timothy, therefore, with a similar illustration in apples, 

 we can readily see that the timothy results as obtained in the experiments 

 described above are no greater than, if as great as, wc might expect. 

 Indeed, the writer feels that only a beginning has been made up to the 

 present time. 



Hay is one of the largest agricultural crops of the United States, out- 

 ranking all other crops except com in total value of production. In 

 19 10, according to the statements issued by the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, there were grown in the United States 45,691,000 acres 

 of hay, which yielded a crop having a fann valuation of $747,769,000. 

 No statistics are available from which we can detennine what proportion 

 of this hay was timothy, but the writer believes we m.ay safely conclude 

 that at least one third of the entire hay crop of the country is timothy. 

 If this is true, the timothy crop of the United States in 19 10 had a 

 valuation of over $249,000,000. In the two years during which tests 

 have been made, the 17 new sorts gave an average increased yield of 

 slightly over 36 3/5 per cent above ordinary timothy. A 36 3/5 per 

 cent increase in the valuation of the timothy crop as above estimated 



