IMPORTANCE OB^ BREEDING ON LARGE SCALE, 15 



tioii is, llow can we get results? If a sinj^le genu has such wonder- 

 fully far-reaching power and immense value, as in the instances men- 

 tioned above, we want to know two important things: (1) IIow shall 

 germs with the special values be produced? (2) How shall we select 

 them out of the large number which must be grown to secure the 

 superior one? 



THE VALUE OF LARGE NUMBERS IN BREEDING EXPERIMENTS. 



The history of breeding animals and plants has many lessons, only 

 a portion of which are as yet read understandingly. The English 

 bi-eeder of hounds expressed a most important truth when answering 

 an incpi iiy as to the secret of his success. He said : "I breed many 

 and I hang many." Only the ver}' few of highest value out of many 

 were used as the foundation stock for further breeding. This does 

 not mean that he did not keep manj' hounds in his kennels at one 

 time. In most cases he could not determine the value of the blood of 

 a certain sire or dam until he had numbers of his or her progeny. 

 Not infrequently the blood of a certain animal or plant is unappre- 

 ciated until, after its death, successive generations have shown the 

 peculiar power of its "blood" to transmit valued characteristics. 

 Messenger is appreciated more bj^ horsemen every year. The peculiar 

 value of the l>lue Stem wheat plant, lio. 476 of 1892, was not gener- 

 ally known until the several strains of wheat from the various wheat 

 plants had been grown in the field trials for some j'ears, and until the 

 one spi-inging from this plant had outstripped all the others as a valu- 

 able variety for practical planting in several States. Peter M. Gideon 

 dug up many thousands of apple seedlings, and yet he is regarded as 

 peculi^^rly fortunate in securing such a large proportion of valuable 

 apple varieties from his extensive plantations of seedlings. 



Luthei- Burbank, of California, in his work in i^roducing new forms 

 of valuable fruits and flowers, digs up and throws away annually 

 aci-esj)f plants in his endeavors to find the one plant in many thou- 

 sands from which he can produce a new variety with higher economic 

 value or artistic (qualities. The Garton Brothers, of England, in pro- 

 ducing their new forms of cereal, forage, and root crops, have dealt 

 with very large numbers of individual plants. The breeders of sugar 

 beets analyze aiiiiually millions of sugar-beet roots, one finn alone 

 emi)"loying 200 peo[)le in this work for two months each year, tluit tlie 

 "blood" of the comparativ<'ly few best mother plants maybe incor- 

 porated into new strains and varieties. 



("rnikshank, the originatoi- of the l"anu)us family of Shorthorn cattle 

 kiKtwn by his name, annually had under his eye very many of the 

 finest Shorthorns of the British Islands, and with wonderful skill 

 brought into his barns those very best aninuds wliich would most 

 elTcctlvely cenlei- Ihc blood of Hie best meal -producing (luality of the 

 whole breed into one herd. His [)hilosophy, his artistic skill, his 



