Breeding Wheat, Corn and Other Crops. 15 



has been improving varieties by adapting them to con- 

 ditions there. These varieties do not succeed so well 

 here, yet we have continued growing them too long. 

 The breeding of wheat in Europe has not reached that 

 perfection found in the breeding of sugar beets, but 

 it has been effective. Hallet's square head wheat bred 

 by Major Hallet, of England, was the parent of a class 

 of wheat which has been very widely used throughout 

 the northern portion of the wheat belt of Europe and 

 has been worth many millions of dollars to farmers and 

 consumers of flour. Dr. Rimpau, of Germany; Vil- 

 morin, of France, and others have originated new 

 wheats which have been widely used because they have 

 increased the value of the products per acre. Still 

 others, as Fr. Strubbe, of Schlanstad, Province of Sax- 

 ony, Germany, are effectively carrying such varieties as 

 Hallet's square head wheat on to further perfection. 

 More bold, the Garton Brothers, of Newton le Willows, 

 England, are striking out into the dangerous, yet most 

 fruitful field, of radical hybridization, and are creating- 

 new varieties, if not, indeed, new species of wheat. If 

 they have the element of long endurance, their reward 

 promises to be great. Still others there are who merely 

 dream of breeding the richness in sugar and freedom 

 from impurities of the juice. Hybridization in the for- 

 mation of entirely new varieties is also an agency which 

 should be utilized by experiment stations and others 

 situated where it is practicable to wait many years for 

 results which may be of especial value. Thus it will 

 be seen that even in this, the most exploited line of 

 breeding, there are opportunities for Americans in plant 

 breeding. This view was assented to by European sug- 

 ar beet breeders with whom the writer conversed at 

 several German centers of sugar beet seed growing. 



The breeding of potatoes has been carried forward 

 so extensively that the original potato has been changed 

 to yield vastly more tubers of much improved quality. 

 Yet the improvements which continue to go forward 

 with the decades, show that the limit of perfection i 



