372 TEXTBOOK OF BOTANY 



377. The Breeders of Plants. — Until about the middle 

 of the last century, plant breeding was done almost entirely 

 by private persons and firms — especially by seed raisers, 

 nurserjnnen, and florists. Here and there an individual 

 farmer, gardener, or amateur flower grower interested him- 

 self in the production of new varieties. It was men of 

 these types who developed most of our present varieties, 

 and they are still doing extremely valuable work. Perhaps 

 the best known of the private breeders of the present time is 

 Luther Burbank, among whose productions are varieties 

 of potatoes, raspberries, and walnuts, the stoneless plums, 

 and the Shasta daisy. But much of the most thorough and 

 important breeding work is done nowadays under the direc- 

 tion of national, state, and provincial governments. Most 

 of the European countries have departments that devote 

 much attention to the improvement of cultivated plants. 

 In North America, the United States and Canadian De- 

 partments of Agriculture have many plant breeders at work 

 on experimental farms which are so located as to test va- 

 rieties of plants under all possible conditions. In addition, 

 each state of the United States and each province of Canada 

 has an experiment station, and in nearly every one of these 

 stations the same sort of work is being carried on. The 

 departments of agriculture and the experiment stations 

 are also doing much, through their bulletins and by other 

 means, to spread a knowledge of the methods of plant 

 breeding, and especially of seed selection, among the men who 

 actually raise plants on farms, in orchards, greenhouses, 

 and market gardens. New varieties are developed and 

 tested at experimental farms ; but they may be kept up to 

 a high standard and even unproved by careful selection of 

 seed each year, and this work of seed selection can in many 

 cases be done as well by practical growers as by professional 

 breeders. 



