368 State Hurticnlliiral Sucicly. 



becxDming- actual, and when we fully grasp these facts there is nothing 

 mysterious in the sudden appearance of sports ; but still further intelligent 

 crossings produce more immediate results and 'oi great value, not to the 

 plant in its struggle with natural forces, but to man by conserving and 

 guiding its life forces to supply him with food, clothing and innumerable 

 ether luxuries and necessities. Plant life is so common that 'one rarely 

 stops to think how utterly dependent we are upon the quiet but magnifi- 

 cently powerful work which they are constantly performing for us. 



It was once thought that plants varied -within the so-called species 

 but very little, and that true species never varied. We have more lately 

 discovered that no two plants are exactly alike, each one having its own 

 individuality, and that new varieties having endowments of priceless value 

 and even distinct new species can be produced by the plant breeder with 

 the same precision that machinery for locomotion and other useful pur- 

 poses is produced by the mechanic. 



The evolution and all the variations of plants are simply the meani 

 vdiich they employ in adjusting themselves to external conditions: Each 

 plant strives to adapt itself to environment with as little demand upon its 

 forces as possible and still keep up in the race. The best endowed species 

 and individuals win the prize, and by variation as well as persistence. 

 The constantly varying external forces to which all life is everywhere 

 subjected demand that the inherent internal force shall always be ready 

 to adapt itself or perish. 



The combination and interaction of these innumerable forces embraced 

 in heredity and environment have given us all our bewildering species, 

 none of which ever did or ever will remain constant, for the inherent life 

 force must be pliable or outside forces will sooner or later extinguish it. 

 Thus, adaptability as well as perseverance is one of the prime virtues in 

 plant as in human life. 



Plant breeding is the intelligent application of the forces of the 

 human mind in guiding the inherent forces into useful directions by 

 crossing to make perturbations or variations of these forces and by radi- 

 cally changing environments, both of which produce somewhat similar 

 results, thus giving a broader field for selection, which, again, is simply 

 the persistent application of mental force to guide and fix the perturbed 

 forces in the desired channels. 



Plant breeding is in its earliest infancy. Us possibilities, and even 

 its fundamental principles, are understood by but few. In the past it has 

 been mostly dabbling with tremendous forces which have been only par- 

 tially appreciated, and has as yet to approach the precision which we ex- 

 pect in the handling of steam or electricity ; and notwithstanding the oc- 

 casional sneers of the iguorantj tliese silent forces embodied in plant life 



