CHAPTER II. 

 IMPROVEMENT OF WHEAT. 



INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION. 



Early Significance. The culture of wheat has perhaps never 

 been exclusively the subject of individual effort, but has also 

 always been the subject of institutional essay, however vague 

 and remote. Since the latter phase of wheat growing became 

 scientific in the nineteenth century, it has been fraught with a 

 significance of the widest and deepest interest. From an in- 

 stitutional point of view, the growers of wheat are not suf- 

 ficiently differentiated from the agricultural element of so- 

 ciety to warrant a distinctive treatment as a class proper. 

 Only by a statement of such characteristics of the agricultural 

 class as are apropos for a consideration of the institutional de- 

 velopment relevant to the culture of wheat can the subject be 

 approached. 



By proverbial repute, the tillers of the soil are, comparatively 

 speaking, independent, unprogressive, non-co-operative, and 

 without marked tendency toward organization. Historically, 

 they have been the last great class to be brought under a 

 progressive regime of societal institutions. There are two main 

 causes for this, neither one of which is inherent in the class. 

 The first and fundamental cause is that agriculture is an occu- 

 pation in nature and conditions such as to require isolation of 

 those engaged in it, with comparatively little division of labor 

 among them. It is an industry as broad as the land upon 

 which it takes place, and admits of no concentration. On the 

 other hand, taking the number of people adequately supported 

 on a given area as a test, the industry is universally developed 

 by a decrease in the size of the holdings of each individual, 

 and by the diversification of labor consequent to this decrease. 

 .The second cause, more remote and less important than the 

 first, is that in agriculture the influence of competition is neces- 

 sarily indirect, and under certain conditions entirely inopera- 

 tive. In civilized life competition in one form or another has 



