440 



J oitnial of Agriculture. 



[8 July, 1907. 



best to make him fulfil his destiny for the betterment of all classes of 

 men. A decade or more back and there were many farmers who smiled 

 with incredulity at the efforts of the wheat-breeder. But after a few 

 years the' object of the work began to be understood. Then from hun- 

 dreds, the number of farmers that annually visited the Dookie Agricultural 

 College wheat plots, increased to over two thousand and they gradually 

 began to learn that experiments in wheat In-eeding could be of some prac- 

 tical use to them. For instance, to put a girder around the straw of a 

 variety and strengthen it, also to shorten the straw for the farmer 00 the 

 wind swept plains who does not need length of straw, are two points 

 that appeal to the practical grower, as also does the tightening of the 

 chaff around the grain of some prolific ^•ariety that showers its wealth o\er 

 the field with every puff of wind or summer breeze. The adding of an 

 additional fertile floret to every spikelet, and increasing the number (^f 

 spikelets ; the implanting of higher feeding qualities to the grain, and 



CROSS-l-'KRilLIZlNG WllKATS AT TlIK DOUKIE AGRICULTURAL CULLLGE. 



making the loaf a real staff of life to the poorest, also the effort to wrest 

 from Nature her secrets so that all soils may be productive of this great 

 staple article of food must convince not only the farmer but every citizen 

 of the Commonwealth that scientific wheat-breeding should be encouraged. 

 The greed for yield has dominated the growth for quality. To combine 

 the two is the grand problem for the wheat breeder, but when so many 

 other properties are to be implanted in the variety, the task of reaching 

 near perfection is on a parallel with that of the breeder of stock who wishes 

 to produce the perfect general-purpose cow, or the hen that lavs abnormally 

 large quantities of eggs and has toothsome flesh besides. Wliether it is 

 possible to raise varieties of wheat that will combine in them all the neces- 

 sary virtues depends much on how high the standard of perfection is 

 placed ; still from past experience we can confidently say that a great future 

 lies before the plant breeder, and that he will accomplish much that will 

 encourage the belief that varieties will ultimately be produced suitable to 

 the special economic conditions of each wheat-growing countrv. 



