PLANT BREEDING 651 



expect some other specialist to provide him with his foundation 

 stock in other lines. No man living, or that will ever be born, 

 will succeed in breeding all lines of animals and plants, except 

 to their confusion and general degradation. 



So while it is popular to advise the farmer to produce his 

 own seeds, it is better business policy for him to buy, and spend 

 a little time and patience in acclimating the strains if need be 

 for a year or two, before putting the new stock into common use. 

 This will generally suffice, and if, in a special case, as perhaps 

 in corn, no improved variety will successfully acclimate, then 

 there is nothing to be done but to set about the production of 

 an improved strain of the local variety ; but this can be accom- 

 plished by a few persons or even by' one person as well as it 

 would be done if every neighbor undertook the task. 



Improvement, even in plants, is costly business, and when 

 once it is effected a real investment has been made that can be 

 multiplied as often as men and lands are available. 



The interests of agriculture demand that some men give their 

 time and genius to the improvement of animals and plants. 

 Their number, however, will never be relatively large, and it 

 need not be. It is expedient that all farmers address themselves 

 to the serious business of learning how to handle and produce 

 on a commercial scale the really excellent creations in plant and 

 animal life that the genius of breeders is able to originate. 



ADDITIONAL REFERENCES . 



ABSTRACT OF PAPERS READ AT THE NEW YORK CONFERENCE OF PLANT 

 AND ANIMAL BREEDERS (September 3o-October 2, 1902). Experi- 

 ment Station Record, XIV, 208-222. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. (A reference to forty-eight articles on plant breeding.) 

 Experiment Station Record, XV, 770 ; also in Experiment Station 

 Record, XVI, 354, thirty-one articles. 



BREEDING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. By W. M. Hays. Breeders' Gazette, 

 XLI, 892,944. 



BREEDING CORN. By C. P. Hartley. Year Book, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, 1902, p. 539. 



BREEDING COTTON. By H. J. Webber. Year Book, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, 1902, p. 365. 



BREEDING FOR EARLINESS, Experiment Station Record, X, 352. 



