No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 213 



able materials which have been improved in i heir hands as the result 

 of a life's work of u-ntiriuj^ vigilance coupled with the highest art 

 known in the field within which they were working. A few agricul- 

 turists have stood prominently above the masses in nearly every gen- 

 eration for centuries. Their whole energy seems to have been given 

 to make something better. Their life's work was devoted to the im- 

 {)rovement of the material which their fellow men must use and which 

 subsequent generations must use and perhaps depend upon for their 

 sustenance. 



Improvements have been made along many lines of wotk, but mark- 

 ed imijrovemeuts have been made by only a small iiumber of persons. 

 In the majority of cases the improvements which were obtained at a 

 great cost of time, labor^ skill and oftentimes at a great sacrifice, have 

 not been maisitained but have been dissipated within a much shorter 

 time than was required to effect the improvement. The history of 

 agriculture shows too plainly that the downward road is often the 

 swiftest and the most cerhiiw. The comparatively few improvers 

 who have worked long and hard to achieve something of a per- 

 manent value, of necessity have become skilled and expert in their 

 chosen lines of work. These men have left the results of their skill 

 aod lifelong toil in the hands of the unskilled who could not appre- 

 ciate the advantages gained, and consequently lost in a short time 

 that w^hich had been won by the master minds and which could only 

 be won by those of superior intelligence and foL'esight. 



Farmers are continually endeavoring to secure increased yields 

 through skill in breeding and through various manipulations which 

 should not require a proportionate increase in the outlay of labor or 

 money. In other words, they are continually striving to secure larger 

 returns for the necessary outlay. The grain farmer, the fruit grower, 

 and the stock breeder are each trying to increase the value of the 

 medium or machine which he is usiiig to convert the crude material 

 into an acceptable merchantable article. The farmer who has been 

 raising wheat for many years with an average yield of perhaps 

 fifteen or eighteen bushels per acre realizes that his profits would 

 be increased if the average j'ield per acre could be increased but a 

 few bushels. It is evident that it would be advantageous to secure an 

 increased production w^ithout increasing materially the cost of pro- 

 duction. He therefore tries to secure a variety of grain that will 

 bring to him larger returns without increasing in any way his ex- 

 pense account. He hears of the greater yields secured by his neigh- 

 bors who claim to be cultivating superior varieties. The yields 

 which they obtain apparently bear out the assertion that they are 

 cultivating improved varieties. 



The farmer decides to give the improved grain a trial and purchases 

 a few bushels for seed. He sows the new grain on the best part of 



