BREEDING NEW GRAINS 



example of the survival of the fittest by means 

 of man's direction. The utmost care is taken 

 to make the wheat strong at all points. Not 

 only must it be better than its ancestors in 

 point of resistance to disease and in increase 

 of yield, but it must run the gauntlet of the 

 severest chemical and milling tests in order 

 that its food value may be determined. If it 

 fails here, it is discarded, no matter how much 

 it may be otherwise better than its forebears. 



From the investigations and tests which 

 have already been made, it appears evident that 

 the wheat yield of the entire world is to be 

 increased enormously, in the aggregate, by this 

 creation of new wheats. In many cases, when 

 the new wheats bred for the hard wheat 

 regions of the Northwest have been given 

 actual field tests, the results have shown gains 

 of from two to five bushels per acre; often the 

 yield has been much greater. In instances, the 

 new wheats have averaged as high as forty- 

 seven bushels per acre, while the average yield 

 of the old wheats alongside them and through- 

 out the states of Minnesota, and North and 

 South Dakota has been from twelve to fifteen 

 bushels per acre. In the days when the soil of 



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