MISCELLANY 227 
It is only recently that a similar effort has been 
made to improve field crops. In most cases the work 
of breeding plants requires more technical knowledge 
than most men possess. It is tedious work at best, 
and requires much training and skill to cross-pollinate 
the ordinary field crops or, to select out the best plants 
in a field, or even in a small plat. Itis natural that 
most progress should have been made with corn, for 
here the individual plants are of considerable size. As 
soon as farmers and plant breeders began to study the 
corn plant with a view to producing superior strains of 
the various varieties, marked improvements in seed 
corn began to be made. ‘There are now many farmers 
who, by the aid received from careful students of the 
subject in our agricultural colleges, produce annually 
large quantities of pedigreed corn of a quality much 
superior in every way to the common corn varieties of 
the country. One breeder, who last year produced 
and sold 25,000 bushels of highly improved seed corn, 
estimates that those who planted this seed secured 
an average increase of eight to ten bushels per acre 
over seed of unimproved varieties. This estimate is 
based on reports furnished by farmers who used this 
seed. It should be remembered that this improve- 
ment has been brought about in a few years. When 
it has been in progress as long as has the improve- 
ment of live stock, we shall doubtless have breeds of 
corn as much superior to the common kinds as the 
present 2,000-pound bullock is to the 500-pound 
Smithfield show animal of a little more than a century 
ago. 
Wheat has received considerable attention from the 
