ON THE POSSIBILITIES 
plenty of suggestions toward this end—which shall 
utilize cheap land to give the world its supply of 
wood pulp for paper making, the demand for 
which has already eaten up our forests and is fast 
encroaching on Canada’s? 
Who shall say that within twenty years there 
will not be some new plant better than flax, some 
plant which, unlike flax for this purpose, can be 
grown in the United States, to supply us with a 
fabric as cheap as cotton, but as fine as linen? 
Who will be the one to produce a plant which 
shall yield us rubber—a plant growing, perhaps, 
on the deserts, which shall make the cost of 
motor car tires seem only an insignificant item in 
upkeep? 
And who, on those same deserts, and growing, 
perhaps, side by side, shall perfect a plant which 
can be transformed into five cent alcohol for the 
motors themselves? 
We see that the openings for plant improve- 
ment broadly divide themselves into four classes. 
First, improving the quality of the product of 
existing plants. 
Second, saving plants from their own extrava- 
gance, thereby increasing their yield. 
Third, fitting plants more closely to specific 
conditions of soil, climate and locality. 
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