THE  jHAWAI  I AN 
FORESTER  I AGRICULTURIST 
VOL.  VI 
JULY,  1909 
No.  7 
It  is  not  improbable  that  the  department  of  agricultural 
science  which  will  most  benefit  the  human  race  in  future  years 
is  that  of  plant  breeding.  Hitherto  but  little  has  been  achieved 
by  the  scientific  plant  breeder,  that  is,  little  in  comparison 
with  the  boundless  store  of  varieties  of  plants  suited  to  fulfil 
peculiar  economic  conditions  which,  it  is  predicted,  will  be 
evolved  by  the  operation  of  principles  which  are  now  becom- 
ing to  be  understood  and  successfully  applied.  It  is  true  that 
our  cultivated  varieties  of  fruits,  flowers  and  grains  have  been 
produced  from  elementary  ancestors  of  little  resemblance  to 
their  luxuriant  descendants,  but  the  process  of  evolution  has 
been  achieved  only  after  great  duration  of  time  and  often 
under  methods  whose  true  scientific  principles  were  little  un- 
derstood. At  first  primitive  man  gathered  from  their  native 
habitat  the  few  uninviting  roots  and  seeds  with  which  he 
appeased  his  hunger.  The  first  step  towards  improvement  of 
such  food  plants  took  place  when  in  order  to  save  the  labor  of 
gathering,  he  planted  them  near  his  home  and  aided  their 
development  by  working  the  soil  and  discovered  the  beneficial 
use  of  fertilizer.  Then  commenced  a long  and  slow  period  of 
advancement.  By  selection  of  the  more  promising  plants  as 
parents  for  the  new  crop,  the  hard  woody  qualities  of  the 
primitive  ancestors  of  our  vegetables  developed  into  the  soft 
and  succulent  varieties  of  our  garden  crops.  The  hard  and 
acrid  berries  of  the  vine  and  tree  mellowed  into  the  generous 
and  lucious  grape,  apple  and  peach. 
All  this,  however,  necessitated  many  centuries  of  laborious 
work  and  many  of  the  advances  taken  were  no  doubt  uncon- 
scious. At  length  in  China  and  ancient  Rome  the  breeding 
of  plants  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  a regular  profession,  and 
to  these  countries  and  to  the  members  of  the  monastic  houses 
of  the  middle  ages  are  to  be  attributed  many  of  the  most  direct 
advances  in  plant  production.  -It  is  only  now,  however,  that 
the  principles  lying  at  the  basis  of  the  improvement  of  plant 
stocks  are  beginning  to  be  applied  and  that  scientific  agricul- 
turists are  consciously  breeding  plants  for  specific  purposes. 
Given  time,  and  that  a not  too  distant  date,  the  modern  plant 
