346 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



IMPROVEMENT IHT QUALITY. 



I have spoken of the possibilities of increasing the 

 yield of our staple crops and consequently of increas- 

 ing, almost indefinitely, the sources of human food. 

 There is another important line of progress along which 

 scientific agriculture will help in this work. I refer 

 to the methods by means of which the character of a 

 crop or of an animal may be changed by scientific se- 

 lection. 



A hundred years ago the ordinary garden beet con- 

 tained only from 3 to 5 per cent, of sugar. To-day the 

 sugar beet, which has been developed from this primi- 

 tive form, contains 15 per cent, of sugar. In seven 

 years of scientific agriculture, the Department of Ag- 

 riculture raised the average content of sugar in sorghum 

 from 9 to 14 per cent. Practically nothing has been 

 done along this line with other standard crops, but it is 

 perfectly certain that the character of any crop can be 

 changed, almost at will, in accordance with the demands 

 which may be made upon it. The protein content of 

 wheat is now 12 per cent. It is safe to predict that a 

 few years of careful scientific selection would increase 

 this content to 15 per cent. 



There is no time here to even mention the details of 

 the work by means of which this desirable result can 

 be accomplished. Protein matter is by far the most 

 costly, pound for pound, of human food, with the possi- 

 ble exception of oils and fats. There is such an il- 

 limitable field of progress before us in the production 

 of carbohydrates for foods that we look with interest 

 upon any methods which may be devised for increasing 

 the content of protein matter in such standard crops as 

 our cereals. In other words, we may be able to ac- 



