I ^2 nur.LETIN 251. 



Much regret has been expressed because our boys and girls become 

 dissatisfied with farm life and remove to the cities. This, the writer 

 believes, is largely due to lack of interest and apparent opportunity on 

 the farm. Get the boy interested in improving the field crops and the 

 girl interested in improving the garden vegetables, the orchard fruits and 

 the flowers, and the writer believes that much of this dissatisfaction 

 would be overcome. Have the boy develop an improved race of corn, 

 wheat, potatoes or some useful crop, keeping records of yields in com- 

 parison with ordinary sorts. Let him exhibit the product at the county 

 and state fairs, and sell the seed of the improved strain to his neighbors. 

 It will prove a profitable investment of time and money and give zest to 

 the farm work. Riley, the Indiana farmer who bred the Boone County 

 White Corn, was an ordinary farmer, not a scientific experimenter. 

 Yet his variety is grown extensively over a dozen of the great corn states 

 and has added thousands upon thousands of dollars to the valuation of 

 the corn crop of the world. Many of the standard varieties of our 

 ordinary crops have been bred by our farmers, and the time has come 

 when such services to humanity will be recognized and recorded in history 

 as are the noteworthy deeds of other great men in other fields of human 

 industry. At the present time probably no field of human activity 

 offers greater opportunity for advancement and reward than the field of 

 agriculture and when pursued with intelligence and energ}^, success is 

 almost certain. 



I. Some of the Factors in Plant-Breeding. 



If one is to use the most comprehensive methods of breeding, the 

 operations become very complex *and few farmers would have the time 

 to undertake the work on so extensive a scale. The writer has in most 

 cases described comparatively simple methods and in some cases has out- 

 lined more complex methods. No matter what breeding or seed-selection 

 the farmer is i)ursuing he should be familiar with the general principles 

 involved and an outline of the most fundamental principles, is thus 

 given. 



The simple methods of seed-selection outlined under certain crops 

 treated, could hardly be considered breeding, but the methods are given 

 as they will lead to considerable improvement and are important to 

 follow where the farmer is not in position to follow more careful methods. 



In the present bulletin no attention is given to the use of hybridiza- 

 tion in the origination of varieties, as this field of breeding is too complex 

 lo be i)ursucd successfully by farmers generally. In some future bulletin 

 the writer hopes to discuss this subject for the benefit of those who may 

 be interested in following breeding in a more specialized way. 



