THE STRAWBERRY 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS 

 OF STRAWBERRY PRODUCTION IN ALL ITS BRANCHES 



Volume I No. S 



Three Rivers, Mich., May, 1906 



$1.00 a Year 



SOME suggestive parallels are to be found in a study of 

 animal breeding and plant breeding, and every year 

 these correspondences appear more clear to breeders 

 as experience brings them into clearer view of the sit- 

 uation as it exists in these important fields of endeavor. In an 

 address before the students of the Iowa Agricultural College at 

 Ames, taking for his theme "The Plow and the Book," John 

 Clay, the well-known Scotch-American stockman, urged the 

 need of intelligent reading on the part of the men who hold the 

 plow and raise live stock if agriculture is to attain its true 

 place in the world. Referring to the history of the Short-horn 

 breed of cattle, Mr. Clay said: "It is a pathetic story in away. 

 There is a rise, decline and fall of many families, a weakening 

 of constitution, the disappearance of some grand work. And 

 from its pages the young breeder, nay, the average farmer and 

 ranchman, may draw many a good lesson." 



So in the plant world we have the rise, decline and fall of 

 noble orders of plants written large on history's page. If we 

 consider so unromantic a thing as the potato, we shall find some 

 striking instances. For one, the Early Rose. What person of 

 forty years but recalls its fine form, smooth skin, mealy texture 

 and delicate flavor, to say nothing of its enduring qualities? 

 Practically it has disappeared from the earth. Why.'' Simply 

 because there was failure to select and restrict, failure to note 

 the good, the better, the best, and propagate only from the latter. 

 Does anybody doubt that if this had been done the Early Rose 

 would today be a better potato than it was thirty years ago.^ 



But now the world is growing more intelligent, and we see 

 the beginnings of better things. Over in Illinois there are now 

 great farms devoted for the most part to the breeding of seed corn. 

 One of these consists of more than 25,000 acies of the best corn 

 land in the world. Upon these farms is grown pedigreed seed- 

 corn, and as a result of the performance of this seed, as compared 

 with that planted by the average farmer from his own crop, con- 

 sidered from both its quality and yield, many farmers in the 

 Illinois "corn belt" now buy each year every bushel planted on 



their farms. And 

 they find it pays them 

 many times over to do 

 so. Yet consider what 

 Riley and Reid and 

 Leaming had to go 

 through before they 

 could prevail upon the 

 world to accept the 

 idea that there was 

 anything in "breed- 

 inrr corn. But the world of agriculture moves, though slowly. 

 Have we tangible proof that this care in the selection and breed- 

 ing of seed-corn gives actual returns in dollars and cents.'' Let 

 us take the result or several years of seed-corn breeding in Illi- 



nois, as described by Prof. Cyril G. Hopkins, chief in agron- 

 omy and chemistry at the University of Illinois, and perhaps 

 the most profound student in this particular line of work in this 

 country, if not in the world. In a recent article Professor 

 Hopkins tells of the 

 work done by the Illi- 

 nois corn breeders to 

 bring up their seed to 

 higher yielding power, 

 and finds in the gov- 

 ernment crop statistics 

 a singular and impress- 

 ive confirmation of his 

 contention that extra- 

 ordinary results will 

 follow continued 

 breeding along scien- 

 tific lines. The gov- 

 ernment figures show 

 that during the four- 

 year period, 1897-1900, Illinois raised an average of 33.9 bush- 

 els of corn to the acre a year, while Iowa raised an average of 

 33.3 — a diff^erence of six-tenths bushels only in favor of Illinois. 

 In the four-year period, 1902-1905, Illinois went up to 36.8 

 bushels, while Iowa went down to 31.9 bushels per acre a year, 

 spreading the diflterence between the two states to 4.9 bushels. 



In commenting upon these figures Professor Hopkins calls 

 attention so the fact that "In the actual and general putting into 

 practice of modern methods of corn improvement, the state of 

 Illinois is at least three or four years in advance of Iowa, the 

 second greatest corn state. Indeed, the general popularizing 

 of corn improvement has been so recent in Iowa that its influence 

 must be measured by future effects rather than by corn yields 

 already produced." Dr. Hopkins also observes that "Illinois 

 farmers as a very general rule are planting improved seed-corn, 

 much of which is actually tested for germinating power, some- 

 times ear by ear." 



Of the results secured by breeding for special purpose, Dr. 

 Hopkins says: "The increase in the feeding value of corn is 

 by far the most important improvement made by breeders thus 

 far. When we know that the protein in some of the leading 

 varieties of corn has been increased from 10 to 13.25 per cent, 

 we begin to realize what improved seed means to the farmer." 



"I do not wish to predict what will be done," concludes Dr. 

 Hopkins, "but I do wish to assert with confidence that by con- 

 tinued use of well-bred, carefully selected and tested seed-corn, 

 by the more general adoption of good crop rotations and the 

 addition of liberal amounts of lime or phosphorus or potassium 

 where either is so deficient as to limit the yield of corn or the 

 success of clover, and by continuing the present excellent Illi- 

 nois practice of thorough soil preparation and good cultivation, 



