ON LIVE STOCK FOOD 



and thus produce a variety relatively free from 

 poison. 



Some similar experiments in improving peas, 

 beans, and other plants related to the clovers, gave 

 assurance that I should be successful in the present 

 instance, merely by selective breeding, in produc- 

 ing a plant with relatively low brucine content, 

 and the experiments even in their initial stages 

 justify this belief. 



Whether it may be necessary to resort to 

 hybridizing experiments in order to eliminate the 

 brucine altogether or to reduce it to a negligible 

 minimum, remains to be seen. 



The experiments were begun only in 1910. 



It should be explained that the hybridizing of 

 the plants of this group is relatively difficult, 

 because the flowers are encased in a closed recep- 

 tacle, as with the peas and beans, which belong 

 to the same family with the clovers. 



All of these so-called leguminous plants — and 

 they are outnumbered only by the composite 

 flowers — bear the stamens and pistils thus guarded, 

 and are normally self-fertilized. 



As already pointed out, this makes the experi- 

 ment of hand-pollenizing these plants a rather 

 tedious one. In the case of the clovers, the flowers 

 being very small, it becomes a somewhat delicate 

 operation as well. But the later stages of the 



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