THE NEW EARTH 



the northwestern states was virgin, before ex- 

 hausted by successive wheat cropping, the 

 average yield was frequently close to the high- 

 est now shown by the new wheats. One of 

 the new wheats, which has for years been 

 under test in the State Experiment Station of 

 Minnesota, where very important work has 

 been done in this line, has now, 1906, been dis- 

 tributed so thoroughly as to cover at least a 

 million of acres, another wheat covers nearly 

 a million acres, and still another, all bred at 

 this station, approaches a half- million acres. 

 It is estimated that these new wheats, together 

 with new and improved varieties of oats, bar- 

 ley and flax bred at this station, will, ere long, 

 cover nearly or quite twenty millions of acres, 

 adding several dollars per acre to the yield of 

 the crops. Two thousand new hybrid wheats 

 are now under test at the Minnesota station. 

 If the wheat crop of the United States alone 

 should be increased by but three bushels per 

 acre, at least one hundred millions of dollars 

 per year would be added to the national 

 wealth, while the world at large would be 

 richer by about five hundred and sixty millions 

 of dollars per year with the same increase. 



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