74 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



is timothy. If this is true, the timothy crop of the United States 

 in 1 910 had a valuation of over $249,000,000. In the two years 

 during which tests have been made, the seventeen new sorts gave 

 an average increased yield of slightly over 36 3/5 per cent above 

 ordinary timothy. A 36 3/5 per cent increase in the valuation of 

 the timothy crop as above estimated would give us over $90,000,- 

 000 as the estimated annual gain in the value of the crop, which 

 would be obtained if new sorts equally as good as these could 

 be used throughout the country. 



The rapid development of the science and art of breeding 

 places us to-day in position to secure improvements much more 

 rapidly than has been done in the past. It would not be astonish- 

 ing if from twenty-five to fifty years of careful, intelligent breed- 

 ing would accomplish with a wild plant what has required many 

 centuries under the crude methods of our ancestors. 



It may be asked why we should be in haste to take up the 

 improvement of our native plants. In answer to this it may be 

 stated that profound changes, such as we desire and must have, 

 require time for their accomplishment. The potato and tomato 

 did not reach their present perfection at one bound. A number 

 of intermediate stages or improvements were first necessary. 

 The strawberry and gooseberry did not reach their present size 

 by one mutation, but several intermediate sizes were first neces- 

 sary. Improvements apparently come by sudden leaps or muta- 

 tions, and each of these paves the way for further development, 

 which might never be possible without the first improvement. 



In breeding, the time element is the limiting factor of impor- 

 tance. No permanent improvement of value can be obtained in 

 a day, and no time should be lost in beginning on a scale com- 

 mensurate with its importance the improvement of our native 

 plants of promise. We must conserve time and fulfil our duty 

 to succeeding generations. Why is it that such a small propor- 

 tion of our lands are cultivated? According to the 1900 census, 

 of the 1,900,000,000 acres of land in continental United States, 

 only 838,000,000 acres were in farms, and of this area over 50.6 

 per cent was unimproved land. The sterile, sandy lands, and the 

 low, wet lands, the stony lands, and the hill lands, the mountain 

 lands of high altitude, and the barren lands of deserts, lacking 

 water, and the like, all uncultivable and largely worthless for 

 crops at present grown, make up far the larger part of our vast 

 domain. 



Travel through the high, hilly and mountainous regions of New 



