4 COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE AND DAIRYING 
IMPROVEMENTS BY SYSTEMATIC SELECTION. 
I would like to speak about the large seeds, that is the seeds of cereals, and the use 
of seed growers’ associations to improve those seeds in Canada. The systematic selec- 
tion of seeds means the selection according to a system, and that a system planned and 
applied with intelligence. Some plants have greater power to overcome obstacles than 
other plants, as some animals have greater power in that respect than others. And the 
characteristics, like those in animals, are transmitted from ancestors to their descend- 
ants, That is the meaning of the breeding of improved horses, cattle and other 
domestic animals. Characteristics are inherited by plants from their ancestors; that 
rule of life seems to run through the whole range of living things. In animals and 
in plants also there is a constant variation; it seems as though all nature was making 
an effort to fit in, to fit into conditions, into environments, and therefore modifying 
itself a little in that effort. If you have crossed the plains you have seen the long 
legs and running shape of the plains Indian; and if you have gone to British Columbia 
and watched the fishing coast Indians you have seen the short legs, the big trunks, and 
the strong arms that are required by fishing men. Anybody can tell by looking at the 
two what occupations their ancestors have followed for many generations. If you have 
watched the Clydesdale horse, you have seen the comparatively straight shoulder, the 
great weight and thick muscle; and if you have seen the race horse, that can come 
down the track at the Derby and come in first, you have seen the fine tough bone, the 
hard sinews, the sloping shoulders, and the relatively great girth of heart. That is 
the result of the effort of nature to fit in to the style of life that had to be lived. 
There are many causes of variation. If you cross a Thoroughbred stallion and a 
Clydesdale mare, you can never tell what you will get; which character will prove 
the prevailing one. You can bring about variation, but you can not tell which way 
the variation will go; and nobody can tell yet. Once there was a man named Mendel, 
who lived some forty years ago, an obscure and quiet life, and. who discovered one of 
the laws of transmission; we have discovered it and him again now, making him one 
of the great discoverers of Europe. Mendel’s law of life laid down the principle 
that in cross-breeding of some plants certain definite characters of parent seeds wilt 
come out in certain definite proportions in the hybrids. 
If you change the supply of food you cause variation; and a change to different 
conditions of climate brings about variation also. These are the three main causes of 
variation: the crossing in breeding, the changing of the supply of food, and a change 
in the conditions of climate. Moreover, if you do not change any of these, you still 
have a tendency to variation inherent in the life of the plants themselves. The in- 
telligence and skill of selection for breeding is determined by the ability to recognize 
the characters, the good qualities that are wanted, and by the skill to select individuals 
for mating that have these good qualities and can transmit them. 
SELECTION OF SUGAR BEETS. 
Let me give you an illustration. In France and in Germany sugar beets now 
produce twice as many pounds of sugar per acre—twice as many pounds of refined 
sugar per acre—as they did before the improvement of the sugar beet was undertaken 
in a systematic manner; that is with the same soil, the same climate, and the same 
kind of fertilizer; and the result is twice as many pounds of sugar per acre. That 
work was begun by Vilmorin, of Paris, three generations ago; his grandson is at the 
head of the business now, and the system is also practised in Utah hy the Mormons. 
The sugar beet growing there could not succeed at all if the practice was not kept up 
continuously. 
' ‘First of all a field of sugar beets is taken and the finest bects of smooth shape, well 
formed and of medium size are selected, those that average from 14 to 2 pounds. 
These choice specimens of the root are harvested and kept in a cool place until spring. 
when they are planted. You know the sugar beet is a biennial, growing what we call 
