BREEDING STAPLE FOOD PLANTS. 265 
farmers, though as a rule they only select in a crude, yet sometimes very 
effective manner. Next come the amateurs, who choose a special line, 
and often carry it out, in a more or less effective manner, to a very suc- 
cessful issue. These men have been especially numerous in England, 
where amateur science has been fashionable among professional and even 
among business men, and gentlemen retired from business. Third may be 
placed the commercial seedsmen who, securing the stock of good varieties 
from the amateur, the gardener, or the farmer, improve them from year 
to year, using their carefully selected stock of one year, for growing fields 
of the seeds for the market the next. The attention of professional 
scientifically trained officials is being turned to the breeding of plants, 
and to the study of the breeding of plants and animals. Hybridising 
and plant improvement have been but little entered upon by women, yet 
there is room for them here as in many other lines requiring manual 
skill, patience, and interesting study. The general results to the public 
of improvements in plants and animals cannot easily be counted, since 
the results are accumulative, the work of one year serving as a foundation 
for better results the next. 
Hach locality has its peculiar needs from the plant breeder. In 
Minnesota the low yield of Wheat on our rich lands calls loudly for 
varieties which will add 20 or even 50 per cent. to the crops of grain. 
We also need a variety of Red Clover which will stand our severest winters 
as well as the common variety stands our best winters. 
In Dakota a Bromus inermis is needed, which will still better resist 
drought than the common variety of this species newly introduced there 
on account of its drought-resisting power. In England varieties of Wheat, 
Oats, and Barley are needed, which, under the heavy fertilising, will not 
lodge, but will stand erect, making it practicable to use the self-binder, 
and thereby save expensive labour. On the moorlands of Western 
Europe are needed varieties of the common forage and grain crops, especi- 
ally bred to thrive on peaty soils. Every locality has its peculiar needs, 
and in the aggregate these needs represent enormous values. Plant 
breeding may yet find a large place in agricultural improvement, taking 
its place beside chemistry and physics. The importance and the difficulty 
of the work make it worthy of the energies of the best minds. 
