8 PLANT BREEDING. 



exceedingly great value to the breeder. Tlic known facts of animal 

 and i)lant bi-eeding, largely wrought oiit in extensive practice, and 

 the visible results of the work of those who breed plants and animals, 

 are for the present of paramount economic importance. Tliey give 

 the basis for a most valuable philosophy, because simple and useful. 

 Plant breeding in America is very much underdone, and in many of 

 its lines public money invested in experimental work may be made to 

 yield to the country a hundred or a thousandfold. The literature of 

 the subject of plant and animal breeding has not been as hopeful in 

 tone as the achievements and the great imj^ort^uce of the subject 

 have warranted. 



The knowledge of the subject of breeding has not been well classi- 

 fied, nor has it been properly emphasized. There are a few books, many 

 scattered articles, and numerous statements in the general writings 

 of many men. Charles Darwin, in his work on " Variations bf animals 

 and plants under domestication," and other writings, brought together 

 a large collection of facts and a most original philosophy of heredit}^ 

 and variation. He recognizes the force of facts shown by improve- 

 ments which men had achieved in breeding plants and animals. J. H. 

 Wallace, in Volume II of Wallace's American Trotting Register, and 

 in other writings; J. H. Sanders, in his book on Horse Breeding; 

 Manly Miles, in Stock Breeding; and other American writers on animal 

 breeding, have shown that they in part conqirehend the force of Dar- 

 win's philosophy as relates to animal and plant breeding. Prof. L. H. 

 Bailey and other recent writers have done much to arouse an interest 

 in breeding plants. The plant improvements of most marked promi- 

 nence are recent, and the men who have done tlie best work have 

 written but little. They have worked with plants rather than with 

 the written theories. The theorj^ of many writers gives less encour- 

 agement for far-reaching results than the facts Avarrant. The long 

 time required to produce considerable changes in the species and 

 varieties of useful plants has had a very retarding effect upon prog- 

 ress in this line of work. Results of immense economic importance 

 which have already been attained should be shown in their true light. 

 Where the individual can not afford to wait for results and will there- 

 fore not properly Garry- forward v^ariety formation, it is the duty of 

 the State to assume the work. The length of'time required to breed 

 special varieties of each class of economic plants suited to each local- 

 ity should not, henceforth, prevent the expending of much effort in 

 this direction. 



Besides being a subject of vast economic importance, the breeding 

 of plants is a fascinating study and a most enchanting pastime. It 

 is one of those subjects in which students like to specialize. Students 

 in the writer's college classes, as soon as they gain a place to work in 

 the field-crop nursery and seed house, wish to forego specializing in 



