What to Work for in Experiments 

 with Plants 



NATURE has been carrying on selective^ world-wide 

 breeding of plants and animals on a constantly widen- 

 ing scale for millions of years: but nature does not care for 

 sweet corn; thin-skinned^ seedless, juicy oranges; head let- 

 tuce; self -blanching celery; double roses; or the farmers' 

 crops of varied grains and potatoes which now are, in most 

 cases at least, a hundred times as productive and of almost 

 infinitely improved qualities. 



Man has, at first unconsciously and later consciously, 

 produced all these marvelous improvements and ten thousand 

 others and is now making and will make improvements in 

 everything, plant and animal, which is useful to him. Na- 

 ture has time without limit, but man has immediate need for 

 better and still better food and must take a hand in hasten- 

 ing and directing plant improvement. 



Immediate possibilities for plant improvement outnumber 

 the improvements which have already been wrought, a thou- 

 sand to one. It would be impossible here to begin to cata- 

 logue the improvements which can be wrought — improve- 

 ments in size, shape, color, texture, juiciness, flavor, sweet- 

 ness, or chemical content of. fruits; improvements in the 

 appearance, tenderness, taste, cooking qualities, and nutri- 

 tive elements in vegetables; improvements in length and 

 strength of fiber in cotton, flax, hemp, and in many other 

 textile plants; improvements in the quantity and quality 

 and color of grains; improvements in amount and value of 

 the chemical content of sugar beets, sorghum, coiFee, tea, 

 and all other plants which are raised for their extracts — 

 improvements all of them, which are capable of turning 

 losses into profits, and of multiplying profits, instead of 

 merely adding to them by single per cents. 



Improving the yield, and consequently the usefulness and 

 profit of existing plants, however, is but the beginning of 

 the work before us. An almost equally rich field lies in 

 saving plants from their own extravagances. Under this 

 head might well come the large subject of bringing trees 



8 



