THE COMING PROFESSION FOR BOYS 213 



cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization, or even without irriga- 

 tion, because a hoe and a cultivator in the hands of a scientific 

 farmer may bring as good and better results in providing 

 moisture for growing plants as can be had from a ditch and 

 unlimited water in the hands of an ignorant farmer." 



The field of discovery is always limitless, and it is to those 

 boys or girls who devote their attention to this that the great- 

 est return will come. "What a fine thing it would be to 

 find even one plant free from rust in the midst of a rusted 

 field. It would mean a rust-resistant plant. Its off-spring 

 would probably be also rust resistant. If you should ever 

 find such a plant, be sure to save its seed and plant in a 

 plot by itself. The next year again save seed from those 

 plants least rusted. Possibly you can develop a rust proof 

 race of wheat! Keep your eyes open." ("Agriculture for 

 Beginners," by Burkett, Stevens, and Hill, pages 76-78.) 

 So you may pluck gain out of loss. 



If you want to do experiments, the influence of ether on 

 plants is one new and wonderful field. It seems to induce 

 artificial rest, so that lilacs, for instance, can be made to 

 bloom twice by a treatment, the last time near Christmas. 



E. V. Wilcox says in Farming that in 1899 a small quantity 

 of durum or macaroni wheat was introduced into this country 

 for trial. It was found profitable in localities where there 

 was too little rain for ordinary wheat. Six years later, 

 20,000,000 bushels per year of the wheat was grown in the 

 United States. Its production has increased greatly every 

 season and has added materially to the total of the wheat 

 crop. Thorough fall cultivation has been found to increase 

 the yield, and in some parts of the wheat belt one in five of 

 the farmers has already adopted the practice. In certain 

 states where manuring has been thought unnecessary, ex- 



