30 PLANT BREEDING. 



have been pvonoiinced a failure. These cold-reii^ioii varieties have not 

 been tried, but would probably succeed well for growing fodder and 

 silage; but of even greater imi)ortanee is the fact that these varieties 

 would be the best foundation stocks to utilize in breeding kinds of 

 corn suited to gi-owing the grain as well as the fodder in many 

 European localities. 



Liberality of plan in introducing and testing new plants is the part 

 of wisdom. In not a few instances plants have not at once fitted into 

 their pi-oper niche, and some useful kinds have been wa-ongfully dis- 

 carded. For example, Bromus inermis, mentioned above, was tried 

 by several experiment stations and by numerous farmers throughout 

 the middle West for a number of years, and no one saw in it anything 

 of especial promise. Attention Avas brought to it hy the Canadian 

 experiment stations at Brandon, Manitoba, and at Indian Head, 

 Assiniboia, and, upon further and more extensive trial, it soon 

 became popular in the Dakotas and adjacent States. Its recent wide 

 distribution by the national Department of Agriculture, aided by 

 experiment stations of the interested States, is proving to be of great 

 value. 



Some introduced varieties and species which seem, as compared 

 w'ith the better standard sorts in any district, to be of too little value 

 to be useful, may be so changed as to fit their new conditions, or they 

 may have special uses not commonly regarded. Thus, some of the 

 hardy Russian apples introduced throughout the middle Northwest 

 by Prof. J. L. Budd and others may prove useful only as a source of 

 hardy aj)ple "blood" in the formation of hybrid races which will 

 endure the severe winters of this northern climate. Mr. Luther Bur- 

 bank, of California, has introduced into his plum-breeding nursery 

 main" types of plums, which he crosses or permits to cross in all con- 

 ceivable combinations, that he may secure seedlings of tj^es almost 

 innumerable, from which he may select the few which are really val- 

 uable. Some forms of Speltz wheat have not i^roven to be a i)rofit- 

 able crop in Minnesota, j^et a small infusion of their blood into the 

 so-called Blue Stem variety may be of value. The Blue Stem shells 

 out badly as soon as ripe, while the Speltz has chaff which remains 

 firmly attached to the kernel, and a little of the Speltz blood miglit be 

 used to correct the greatest weakness of the otherwise very good Blue 

 Stem variety. 



CHOICE OF FOUNDATION STOCKS. 



The plant breeder wins half of the battle when he secures suitable 

 foundation stocks. To do this often requires the extensive testing 

 of introduced and standard varieties in the locality and under the 

 conditions for which the effort is to be made to breed improved 

 varieties. But as a rule there are standard varieties commonly and 

 successfully grown in the vicinity which will serve until, by further 



