CHAPTER I. 



POSSIBILITIES IN PLANT AND ANIMAL BREEDING. 



Five billion dollars' worth of plant and animal pro- 

 ducts are to be annually produced on American farms 

 from seeds and germs which may be so improved and 

 selected that the value of the product may be made at 

 least five per cent, more valuable. Five per cent, of 

 five billion is a quarter of one billion. In other words, 

 if the American people can change the heredity of the 

 average of their crops and domestic animals so as to 

 increase the value of the product five per cent, the in- 

 creased valuation will be $250,000,000 annually, or 

 a billion dollars more every four years. Much in- 

 crease is now actually going forward under present 

 methods, but if by extensive effort under scientific 

 methods of breeding an additional five per cent be 

 realized the cost of such improvement could not be 

 more than a very small part of the increased produc- 

 tion. We have no just conception of the immense eco- 

 nomic value of the occasional plant or animal which' 

 becomes the chief factor in an improved. breed or va- 

 riety, as Messenger's blood became the foundation of 

 the breed of trotting horses. 



No one w^ll doubt but that five per cent, could be 

 added to our agricultural income by better methods 

 of farming and superior management of live stock. 

 All agree that time spent on gaining a better knowl- 

 edge of farm and stock management and a better 



