4 8 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



mad speed and his tremendous expenditure of nervous energy, 

 may be benefited by some of the qualities which might de- 

 velop as the result of an amalgamation with this hardy and 

 happy, hut careless and ease-loving race. 



The scientific plant breeders of torday do not hesitate to 

 tiy for almost any desired quality, and their confidence in at- 

 laining it would be amazing but for their past achievements. 

 The phyloxera would absolutely have wiped out the grape 

 industry of France had the breeders not developed a variety 

 of vine resistant to the pest, and during the present season this 

 resistant variety has been introduced into certain sections of 

 California as the one efficient means of saving the industry 

 there. One of the reasons for the enormous increase of the 

 beet-sugar industry of this country is that new varieties of 

 these beets have lately been created which carry a phenomenal 

 content of sugar as high as 25 per cent. ; that is, that one- 

 quarter of the root of each of these plants is pure sugar. With- 

 in recent years the planters of sea-island cotton were threat- 

 ened with ruin because of the "leaf wilt" which had become 

 epidemic among their plants. To-day there may be had a 

 wilt-resisting variety of sea-island cotton which is absolutely 

 immune to this scourge. One of the most interesting conflicts 

 ever waged by the farmer against the natural enemies of his 

 crop is at the present time on against the Mexican boll wevil. 

 This beetle caused last year to the planters of the gulf states 

 a loss conservatively estimated at $22,000,000. Several val- 

 uable suggestions have been made for the extermination of 

 the pest, or for the mitigation of its ravages. An ant which 

 feeds upon the beetle in one of the stages of its development 

 has been imported from Guatemala, and cultural methods have 

 been introduced which are known to be more or less effective 



