34 SOME THINGS APPLIED SCIENCE HAS DONE 
FOR THE FARMER 
Already a beginning has been made by establishing 
Experimental Farms, and Dr. Saunders, Director of the 
Experimental Farm at Ottawa, has produced an improved 
wheat called the Preston wheat—a cross between Fife and 
Ladogo wheat, and which is already proving a boon to our 
North-west. 
The scientific processes involved in the really wonderful 
results attained in the enormously increased yield of grain 
and other vegetable products, are those relating to the seed 
planted and the soil in which the seed is deposited. 
Great care is taken in securing high grade seed, and to 
secure this ‘‘ plant breeding ’’ or hybridization, and careful 
selection is resorted to to get the best possible seed grain. 
I have not time in a short address to describe what is meant 
by hybridization, but we have all heard of what Mr. Bur- 
bank of California has accomplished by this means, and of 
the wonderful new fruits and flowers he has produced. 
And then nearer at home we have Mr. Groff, of Simcoe, 
giving us new forms aud colors of that popular flower the 
Gladiolus. So also we have those zealous and unwearied 
professors in the Agricultural Departments of those great 
Western Universities securing wheat and other grains from 
far distant lands famous for their wheat growing, who after 
sowing them have watched the result, and if desirable 
quantities appeared the seed was carefully gathered and 
next year, perhaps. ‘‘ crossed’’ with some other desirable 
strain, and a grain, perhaps, superior to both secured. And 
even after this, when the resultant crop was ripe men may 
be seen going through the field gathering the best ears to 
be used as seed the following year ; and hence it is that as 
high as $30 a bushel has been given for pedigreed wheat. 
Further, practical science has had much to say about 
the soils, and the fertilizers, and the weeds, and the 
diseases. Has not the ‘‘smut’’ in oats all but disappeared 
from our fields ? 
