48 The Bulletin. 



view to adapt and adjust strains of plants to new environmental conditions. 

 The variety thus developed is, in the nature of the case, adapted to the sur- 

 roundings where it has been making its best yields. The mere existence of 

 these varieties carries with it the suggestion that they are not all equally well 

 suited to all climatic and soil conditions, and that each one has doubtless 

 proven to be the best variety in its native locality. We are to assume, then, 

 that these are all good varieties when grown under favorable soil and climatic 

 conditions. Again, since varieties of plants are generally developed in a given 

 locality under given soil and climatic conditions, it follows that they will 

 make as good if not better yields when propagated under soil and climatic 

 conditions similar to those under which they have been developed. 



Heretofore, much stress has been laid on the financial loss sustained from 

 poor cultivation and lack of proper fertilization ; but little attention has been 

 called to the millions lost each year by using not only poor seed, but seed 

 grown under an entirely different environment from that under which we are 

 forced to place it. 



It has been demonstrated that a change of soil environment of some of these 

 varieties decreases the yield in case of cotton over $30 per acre. We could 

 cite instance after instance where, by actual measurement, farmers have lost 

 thousands of dollars in a single year by growing a variety of cotton, corn, 

 wheat or some other staple crop on a soil type to which it was by no means 

 adapted. It has been estimated on the most conservative data that the 

 farmers of the State lose annually upwards of ten million dollars on the cot- 

 ton crop alone, to say nothing of corn, wheat, oats, etc., by trying to grow 

 varieties not suited to their conditions. It is not unusual to hear a farmer 

 say : "I bought a new kind of cotton seed last spring and failed to get more 

 than half as much per acre as I got from the old kind I have planted for 

 years." I hear them say the same of corn, wheat and oats. In our variety 

 tests on the farms you will note that some cottons yield as much as $25 an 

 acre more than others growing alongside them and receiving identical treat- 

 ment. Similar differences are found in the case of corn and wheat. 



We stated that the best variety to plant for a given locality is the one that 

 has been developed under the soil and climatic conditions of that locality. 

 This being true, the only way to know positively that we are growing the best 

 varieties is to ascertain the details of their development in their original 

 environment, and since few or none of the many existing varieties of crops 

 are at present grown under soil and climatic conditions similar to those in 

 which they were developed, but have been scattered far and wide over the 

 country and grown under all sorts of soil and climatic conditions till they have 

 lost all inheritance but their name, it is plain that any definite knowledge of 

 the probable performance of any of the varieties of crops offered for sale in 

 the general market will be difficult to obtain. 



In view, then, of the difficulties in the way of securing from abroad the 

 varieties of crops best suited to our conditions, the Department is carrying on 

 extensive plant-breeding work, looking to the development on the different 

 soil types of the State of varieties of plants that shall be perfectly adapted to 

 their environment. When these varieties have been bred up to where a profit- 

 able yield is secured it is the intention of the Department to distribute sam- 

 ples of these well-bred seeds to the farmers of the State who farm on laud 

 similar to that on which the varieties have been developed. This will be done 

 in the hope that in each county where these seeds are placed one or more good 

 farmers will take them and multiply them into commercial quantities for his 

 own fields and those of his neighbors. 



In the meantime the highest bred seed will be kept on the farms and. by 

 persistent efforts, will have its productive power pushed higher and higher, 

 and, from time to time, those who are growing the seed for sale will be fur- 

 nished a new strain of the same variety to take the place of the strain pre- 

 viously grown. The Department hopes in this way not only to protect the 

 farmers of the State against fraudulent seed distribution, but to provide means 

 whereby they may get good seed of the best variety for their individual soil 

 and climatic conditions, thus enabling them to sow in the spring with a greater 

 assurance of reaping a profitable harvest in the fall. 



