88 Breeding Plants and Animals. 



tions. The average for the common wheats was 18.2 

 bushels, and the average of Minn. No. 169 wheat was 

 21.5, a gain of 3.3 bushels, or 18 per cent. Wheat has 

 been our most fruitful species in lessons in heredity and 

 breeding, in part because it has been bred most exten- 

 sively and has been most used in theoretical experi- 

 ments. 



The above summary is given mainly to show that 

 this work is being taken up extensively as well as in- 

 tensely, and that results of vast economic importance 

 are being reached. The gradual evolution of systematic 

 plans for planting, recording notes, harvesting, labora- 

 tory testing and summarizing results has made it pos- 

 sible to handle nurseries containing hundreds of thou- 

 sands of plants. A force of helpers can be organized 

 to thus breed plants as well as to run a large bank or 

 a department store. The first thing is to realize the im- 

 portance of work which may and will annually add 

 many millions of dollars of wealth to the products of 

 our farms. Complexity, extensiveness, and difficulty 

 of organization should not be in the way of adequate 

 organization and expenditure to greatly increase the 

 efficiency of either animal breeding or plant breeding 

 in America. Men have arisen who are capable of lead- 

 ing in the organization of capital in most complex lines 

 of manufacture, commerce and transportation. Other 

 men are being found to weld together into co-operative 

 association the discordant units of labor interests. The 

 first thing needing demonstration in animal breeding 

 is that it must be undertaken in a large way. The use 

 of large numbers under effective statistical and artistic 

 methods makes necessary further co-operation and or- 

 ganization than are now in vogue. Our breeders' organ- 

 izations and herd book associations, should be evolved 

 so that they would provide for even more rapid prog- 

 ress than is now being made. 



I recently had the pleasure of inspecting the plant 

 breeding experiments of the South Dakota Experiment 

 Station, (1904). A good start is being made in "breed- 



