48 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTUKE. 



pursuit they may be engaged, by an increased improvement in both 

 quantity and quality of agricultural products. 



It is a fact that iu the equitable interchange of seeds and plants 

 (vhich lias taken place between our own Government and those of for- 

 eign couutries our friendly relations therewith have been greatly 

 strengthened and promoted. In no department of the General Govern- 

 ment has the expenditure of so small a sum been so productive of as 

 much good as that expended in the introduction and dissemination of 

 valuable seeds and plants. There are the most ample statistical data at 

 band in the carefully-kept records of the Agricultural Department to 

 show that the increased x>roduction of wheat, oats, and other cereals 

 and grasses, has, by reason of the wide distribution of improved vari- 

 eties, paid tenfold the entire amount expended by the Department of 

 Agriculture since it was established. 



The charges that are occasionally heard of the distribution of worth- 

 less and common seeds, have, in the main, no substantial foundation in 

 fact. They originate in many cases from carelessness in the time or 

 method of planting, and in others in the pecuniarily-biasetl imagina- 

 tions of writers. With the present method of applying a double test to 

 ascertain the exact per cent, of the vitality of the seeds now sent out 

 from the seed division, the fault cannot be rightfully attributed to im- 

 perfect seed. The complaints that the seeds sent out are improperly 

 labeled, and are not true to name, may be, and probably is, a just one 

 in exceptional cases, for in putting up so many million papers of seeds 

 it would be very strange if no mistakes were ever made. The impor- 

 tance, however, of disseminating seed of the best pedigree as widely as 

 possible cannot be too strongly insisted upon by those who earn their 

 bread by the sweat of their own brows. 



SEED ITVrPEOVEMENT. 



Tbat the subject of seed improvement has been too much neglected 

 in the past, by progressive farmers, is a fact which all will admit. How- 

 ever, with the increasing intelligence of the farming community, very 

 many thinking, working farmers have been forced to acknowledge the 

 need of more accurate information on the subject of seed-breeding by 

 means of crossing or hybridization. It is a subject not less in importance 

 than the production of thoroughbred stock by such crosses and inter- 

 mixture of blood as will tend to ijerfect development in the line of the 

 objects sought to be attained. It is upon the recognition of this fact 

 that I have, in the following paragraphs, endeavored to compile, from 

 the most authentic sources, a series of facts bearing upon the subject of 

 seed- breeding, v/ith the view of inciting a still deeper and more abiding 

 interest in the most practical methods of 



CROSSING OR HYBRIDIZATION. 



The leading principle involved in seed improvement is that known as 

 hybridization. In order to generate the best kinds of seeds, the most 

 healtliy plants must be chosen, and those which are the most early in 

 respect to season should be so insulated as to have no weak plants of 

 the same species, or even genus, in their vicinity, lest the pollen of the 

 weaker plants should be blown upon the stigmata of the stronger and 

 produce a less vigorous progeny. 



In the majority of cultivated plants the two sets of organs, the pistils 

 and stamens, are in the same flower. In some plants the pistils and the 



