POSSIBILITIES OF ECONOMIC BOTANY. 65 



in strict review. Size of grain, strength and vigor and plasticity 

 of stock, adaptability to different surroundings, and flexibility in 

 variation would be examined with scrupulous care. 



But the range of experiment would, under the circumstances, 

 extend far beyond the relatives of our present cereals. It would 

 embrace an examination of the other grasses which are even now 

 cultivated for their grains, but which are so little known, outside 

 of their own limit, that it is a surprise to hear about them. For 

 example, the millets, great and small, would be investigated. These 

 grains, so little known here, form an important crop in certain 

 parts of the East. One of the leading authorities on the subject * 

 states that the millets constitute " a more important crop " in India 

 " than either rice or wheat, and are grown more extensively, being 

 raised from Madras in the south to Rajputana in the north. They 

 occupy about eighty-three per cent of the food-grain area in 

 Bombay and Sinde, forty-one per cent in the Punjab, thirty- 

 nine per cent in the central provinces," " in all about thirty 

 million acres." 



Having chosen proper subjects for experimenting, the cultiva- 

 tors would make use of certain well-known principles. By simple 

 selection of the more desirable seeds, strains would be secured to 

 suit definite wants, and these strains would be kept as races, or 

 attempts would be made to intensify v/ished-for characters. By 

 skillful hybridizing of the first, second, and higher orders, tenden- 

 cies to wider variation would be obtained and the process of selec- 

 tion considerably expedited.! 



It is out of our power to predict how much time would elapse 

 before satisfactory substitutes for our cereals could be found. In 

 the improvement of the grains of grasses other than those which 

 have been very long under cultivation, experiments have been 

 few, scattered, and indecisive. Therefore we are as badly off for 

 time-ratios as are the geologists and archaeologists in their state- 

 ments of elapsed periods. It is impossible for us to ignore the 

 fact that there appear to be occasions in the life of a species when 

 it seems to be peculiarly susceptible to the influence of its sur- 



* Food-grains of India, A. II. Church, London, 1886, p. 34. In this instructive work 

 the reader will find much information regarding the less common articles of food. Of 

 Paiiicum frumentaccum. Prof. Georgeson states in a letter that it is grown in Japan for 

 its grain, which is used for food, but here would take rank as a fodder-plant. 



f In order to avoid possible misapprehension, it should be stated that there are a few 

 persons who hold that at least some of our cereals, and other cultivated plants, for that 

 matter, have not undergone material improvement, but are essentially unmodified progeny. 

 Under this view, if we could look back into the farthest past, we should see our cereals 

 growing wild and in such admirable condition that we should unhesitatingly select them 

 for immediate use. This extreme position is untenable. Again, there are a few extrem- 

 ists who hold that some plants under cultivation have reached their culminating point, and 

 must now remain stationary or begin to retrograde. 



