MARVELOUS POSSIBILITIES 269 



Whatever plant we observe we shall see some 

 waste which might be eliminated, some weakness 

 which might be overcome, some extravagance 

 which might be checked and all for the profit 

 of producer and consumer alike, as well as the 

 whole world at large. 



Still another important department of plant 

 improvement lies in fitting plants to meet 

 specific conditions. 



The grape growers of France, Spain, and 

 California, for example, had their fair vineyards 

 destroyed by a little plant root louse (Phyllox- 

 era), a pest which renders the vine useless or 

 kills it outright. The growers found relief 

 through grafting their vines on phylloxera re- 

 sistant roots which past environment had 

 armored against this pest. 



When we think of the cactus, sagebrush and 

 the desert euphorbia, and of the conditions 4 

 which, unaided, they have withstood and the 

 enemies which they have overcome, does it not 

 seem as if, with our help, we should be able to 

 produce new races of plants to withstand the 

 boll weevil, the codling moth, and the San Jose 

 scale ; and with complaints so broadcast and suc- 

 cesses so marked and so many, does not the pro- 

 duction of disease-and-pest-resisting varieties 

 seem an important field for work? 



