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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PLANT BREEDING AS A PRACTICAL PURSUIT. 



PROF. C. P. BULL, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



In the line of horticulture, perhaps more than in any other 

 branch of agricultural pursuits, plant breeding is most fascinating 

 and interesting, and it pays large returns for the money and time 

 expended. The developing of a certain color in the flower, the fixing 

 of certain stripes in the foliage, the elimination of the pits of plums 

 and the seeds of oranges and lemons, the originating of types and 

 varieties, all are most interesting and have a value commercially 

 as well as in demonstrating the possibilities of breeding. In other 

 lines the system has been perfected to a higher degree, and the re- 



PROF. C. p. BULL, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



suits have been equally as valuable and more demonstrative. The 

 increasing of the sugar content of the beet from a few per cent to 

 a crop average of about fifteen per cent is the result of but a few 

 years' careful selection and has been of world wide value. The 

 increase of about one per cent a year in the oil content of corn has 

 been the result of work carried on at the Illinois Experiment Station. 

 Corn is also receiving much attention in fixing types and increasing 

 the yield. Carefully prepared data show that sixteen bushels per 

 acre were added to the yield of a variety of corn by a few years' 

 systematic selection. That the work is practical is evident from the 

 fact that Illinois and Iowa and other of the corn belt states have 

 started the breeding of varieties of corn. 



