PROBLEM OP CROP PRODUCTION 369 



vesting and curing of crops, offer many opportunities 

 for error. In new countries, and' particularly where the 

 settlers are unfamiliar with farming, the best practices 

 have to be learned by experience, and in the early days of 

 such settlements this experience is often gained at a very 

 great cost. But even now there is a considerable fund of 

 information, sufficient at least to make a safe working 

 guide to the successful prosecution of each of these, even 

 under the diverse climatic conditions the different parts 

 of the West present. The experimental farms have been 

 given the responsibility for getting more accurate infor- 

 mation on this subject and their results are being made 

 available to all in their annual reports and periodical 

 bulletins. No one need long remain in the dark concern- 

 ing the '"'crop management" practices now recognized as 

 suitable in different portions of Western Canada. 



331. The Improvement of Crops. — Men are improving 

 crops by doing two things: (1) by the negative process 

 of preventing them from deteriorating, and (2) by in- 

 creasing their hereditary power with respect to yield, 

 quality, or some other economic character. The first is 

 the business of the farmer, the responsibility for the 

 second lies with our experiment stations. 



Our crops have in many instances deteriorated sadly 

 by admixture with weeds and seeds of other crops, by 

 attacks of disease, by drought and frost and by improper 

 care of the seed. The prevention of each of these in so 

 far as it is possible is necessary in order to maintain pro- 

 ductiveness and quality. It is not always within the far- 

 mer's power to wholly prevent these conditions, but 

 ordinarily he can do much to lessen their ill effects. 



The hereditary power of our crops has been and is 

 being improved by selection and by artificial crossing. 



