May 1, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



for the most part only fanciful, are founded 

 on a priori judgments, and are oftener cor- 

 related with, mere 'looks' than with effi- 

 ciency. An excellent example may be 

 taken from corn. In 'scaling' any variety 

 of corn, it is customary to assume that the 

 perfect ear is one nearly or quite uniformly 

 cylindrical throughout its length, and hav- 

 ing the tip and butt well covered with 

 kernels. In fact, the old idea of a good 

 variety of corn is one that bears such ears. 

 Now, this ideal is clearly one of perfection 

 and completeness of mere form. "We have 

 no knowledge that such form has any cor- 

 relation with productiveness, hardiness, 

 drought-resisting qualities, protein or 

 starch content, and yet these attributes are 

 the ones that make corn worth growing at 

 all. An illustration also may be taken from 

 string beans. The ideal pod is considered 

 to be one of which the tip-projection is 

 very short and only slightly curved. This, 

 apparently, is a question of comeliness, al- 

 though a short tip may be associated in 

 the popular mind with the absence of 

 'string' in the pod; but we do not know 

 that this character has any relation to the 

 efficiency of the bean pod. We are now 

 undergoing much the same challenging of 

 ideas respecting the points of animals. 

 These 'points,' by means gf which the ani- 

 mals are 'scored,' are in large part merely 

 arbitrary. Now, animals and plants are 

 bred to the ideals expressed in these arbi- 

 trary points, by choosing for parents the 

 individuals that 'score' the highest. "When 

 it becomes necessary to recast our 'scales 

 of points,' the whole course of evolution 

 of domestic plants and animals is likely to 

 be changed. 



We are to breed not so much for merely 

 new and striking characters that will enable 

 us to name, describe and sell a 'novelty,' 

 as to improve the performance along accus- 

 tomed lines. We are not to start with a 



variety, but with a plant. It is possible 

 to secure a five per cent, increase in the 

 efficiency of our field crops. This would 

 mean the annual addition of hundreds of 

 millions of dollars to the national gain. 



The purpose, then, of our new plant- 

 breeding is to produce plants that are more 

 efficient for specific uses and specific re- 

 gions. They are to be specially adapted. 

 These efficiency ideals are of six general 

 categories : 



1. Yield ideals. 



2. Quality ideals. 



3. Seasonal ideals. 



4. Physical conformation ideals. 



5. Eegional adaptation ideals as to cli- 

 mate, altitude, soil, etc. 



6. Eesistant ideals as to diseases and in- 

 sects. 



The main improvement and evolution of 

 agriculture are going to come as the result 

 of greater and better crop yield and greater 

 and better animal production. It is not 

 to come primarily from invention, good 

 roads, rural telephones, legislation, discus- 

 sion of economics. All these are merely 

 aids. Increased crop and animal produc- 

 tion are to come from two agencies — im- 

 provement in the care that they receive 

 and improvement in the plants and animals 

 themselves. In other words, the new agri- 

 culture is to be built upon the combined 

 results of better cultivation and better 

 breeding. So far as the new breeding is 

 concerned, it is characterized by perfect 

 definiteness of purpose and effort, the strip- 

 ping away of all arbitrary and factitious 

 standards, the absence of speculative theory 

 and the insistence on the great fact that 

 every plant and animal has individuality. 



Development of the English Alphabet: Pro- 

 fessor Francis A. Maech, of Lafayette 

 College, Easton, Pa. 

 Language is growth. We will to utter 



sounds, and the muscles move by their own 



