56 BAILEY—MOVEMENT IN PLANT-BREEDING. [April 2, 
consider the variety as a unit or basis from which we are to 
breed for the purpose of producing other varieties? Or shall we 
still further refine our ideals and find that the variety-conception is 
really only a mark of an imperfect and superficial development of 
an immature age? 
Now, plant-breeding is worthy of the name only as it sets 
definite ideals and is able to attain them. Merely to produce new 
things is of no merit: that was done long before man was evolved. 
A child can ‘‘produce’’ a new variety, but it may learn nothing 
and contribute nothing in producing it. I have myself produced 
1500 new kinds of pumpkins and squashes, but I had no idea what 
I was to produce, the world is no better for my having produced 
them, and I am no wiser (except in experience) than I was before. 
In many ‘‘new’’ things that are produced, there may be dispute as. 
to whether they are new and as to whether they are distinct enough 
to be named and therefore to be ranked as varieties at all. This is 
not science, nor even breeding: it is playing and guessing. 
What does the world care whether John Jones produces ‘‘ Jones’ 
Giant Beardless wheat’’? But it does care if he produces a wheat 
having a half of one per cent. more protein. We must give up the 
production of mere ‘‘ varieties ’’; we must breed for certain definite 
attributes that will make the new generations of plants more 
efficient for certain purposes: this is the new outlook in plant- 
breeding. 
Happily, we are not without abundant accomplishment in this 
new field. The last ten years has seen a remarkable specialization 
in the producing of plants that are adapted to particular needs. 
The days of merely crossing and sowing tHe seeds to see what will 
turn up are already past} with those who are engaged seriously in 
the work. The old method was hit-and-miss and the result was to 
take what good luck put in your way : the new method proceeds defi- 
nitely and directly and the result is the necessary outcome of the 
line of effort. The crux of the new ideal is efficiency in one 
particular attribute in the product of the breeding. These attrib- 
utes are measurable: the kind of results are foreseen in the plan, 
or are predictable. 
All these remarks are typically illustrated in the experiments with 
corn-breeding conducted in Illinois. It is significant to note what 
are the reasons for breeding new corns, as stated by Professor Hop- 
kins in Bulletin 82 of the Illinois Experiment Station : 
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