Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 5, 1909, Page 45

THE OMAHA SUNDAY BEE DECEMBER The National Corn Exposition Omaha, Neb., December 6-18, 1909, 14 Electric Lighted Trains Every Day. H et B i 1= “-i‘lli ] 4 WILLETT M. HAYS, BREEDER Man Who Has Studied Causes of Life and Growth. AIDS MAN, ANIMALS AND PLANTS Dreams of Wealth to Come Through Better Understanding of How to Produce More from Means , at Hand. In 1862, while our most efficiert young men were destroying one another in san- gulnary war, a congress composed of northern men paused long enough to pass & measure to establish insgtutions de- voted to vocational education. That the wgorkers in our Indugtries might increase the production of farm crops and of me- chanical products, and that our farmers and other productive workers might im- prove thelr conditions, the ‘land-grant college” act was passed, resulting later In the establishment by each state, south as well as north, of a college of agriculture | and mechanic arts these colleges ha The graduates of become a body of most efficient workers and leaders in developing our basic Industries. One of the graduates of an agricultural college to become a leader s the present assistant secretary of agriculture, M. Hays of Minnesota. lowa Agricultural college gave him his technical training. He is one of a group of leaders who is placing American country life on & new basis. The young men now developing as teachers and rescarch workers In our col- leges, experiment stations, and depart- wents of agriculture, and the much larger numbers who aro emerging from our agri- ocultural schools are taking the leadl in con quering a new earth They add other grains to the ear jof wheat, and they cause to be produced tWwo blades of grass where one grew before. The sclenco which these men are developing promises nearly, it not quite, to double the value of our farm products. And it has been made plain that in two generations we must produce foid and rainment for 200,000,000 people we now feed and clothe less thun 100,000,000 Work Follows Gradustion. Mr. Hays had the good fortune to have sraduated, and to only have completed his sraduate course—as assoclate editor of an agricultural paper—just at the time gress arranged for the establishment the system of state experiment stations in 1888, He was fortunate, that he was chosen by the University of Minnesota to work In Its experiment station and college of agriculture. Here were opened for him flelds of research to which he proved pe- cullarly well adapted, He ¢ Abin talents of the scientist, teac nd ministrator; and his investigations in the improvement of crops by breeding. into farm management and into the cost of pro- ducing farm products, and his constructive work in devising methods of teaching farm organizations as other sclentific engineer- Ing subjects are taught, have given him high rank as an economist Willet M. Hays was born in 189 on a new lowa homestead. When 12 years old bis father having died, he and an elder brother took up the management of the mother's farm The .farm paid some profits, besides sending one or the other of the boys away from home to school every year till both were graduated. Some school teaching sandwiched in and on the agricultural college experi- mant station helped to meet expenses and provided mot & lttle of his tralning. One where co 00, | Willett of | VIiA Union Pacifi “ The Safe Road Toe Travel” Dustless, Electric Block Signals. Perfect Track. New Steel Passenger Equipment. Dining Car Meals and Service “Best in the World.” LOW RATES From Points in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Wyoming. For information relative to rates, limits, etc., call on your local agent, or address City Ticket Office, 1324 Farnam Street. Phones 40 Per Cent of Main Line is Double Track. "Bell Doug. 1828 and Ind. A-3231. year in the Towa experiment station, cone year as associate editor of an agricuitural newspaper, four years in the University of Minnesota, two years in North Dakota Agricultural college, eleven years in the University of Minnesota again years In the United States Department lot Agriculture have given many oppor- | tunitles for a technical, sane and broad view of affairs relating to the farming population of our country. Began Breeding Early. Mr. Hays began the breeding of timothy, wheat and other field crops. In 1889 he had demonstrated that by the méthods he had devised he was able to in- crease the wield of standard varietles of wheat 10.20, and even 25 per cent. In a few more years similar Improvements were made with several other fleld crops, and some of the new varietles were grown on hundreds of thousands of acres. His unique methods were rapidly developed into a system, with a most wonderful organiza- tion of detail in seleciing the sceds, plant- ing large broods of the seeds of single recording the performance |t individual plants and of fraternity groups of plants, and in tabulating and | displaying the pedigree values of the thous- ands of newly creatcd pure-bred varieties, Thus corn, oats, barley, flax and the grasses and clovers came under the master hand of this breeder. The resourcefulness needed to find ways | to plant, make records of, select, hybridize, multiply, advertise and distribute new va- ieties In working with each of a score of pecies of field crops is illustrated in tra- ditions about Minuesota's experiment sta- tion. Mr. Hays' first experiment In start- ing a fleld crop nursery with one plant in a hill was with timothy. The wind per- | sisted dally in blowing, thus making It im- possible to plant one tiny timothy seed by itself in hills & foot part each way. To prevent loss of the seeds by the wind little balls of clay were, therefore, made In the |laboratory and a seed placed In each | These clay balls were then planted. No | one had before grown single timothy plants in hills so as to see the great stools of |culms and heads from single seeds. The immense variation showed the young plant breeder that even grass ps could be |brea like animals, comparing the breeding value of one fine looking parent plant with the breeding power of another. Thus |the very first experiment led to the de- velopment by Mr. Hays of the so-called centgener methiod of breeding now recog- nizcd as the important method for many crops. New Word for New Method. gel methods the breeder any superior parent plants. A hundred or more ds of each parent w planted. The word centgener, com- bining the words centum and geners, slm- ply means a hundred, more or less, of one birth, having a common parenta By comparing the average of the progeny of the respective parent plants the power each parent to project its own individual values Into its progeny was measured, that the seeds f those relatively parent plants which beget the best stralns might be preserved and made into new pure-bred varieties. By this means the parent plants were compared in a far more vital way than by simply comparing thelr lown ylelds. | The expressions, “cengener power’ and | “projected breeding efficlency” have in- | carnated this new plan of breeding luto the thought of the times. This basic pian has | made it possible to organize large estab- | lishments for creative work In making new strains of plants and animals. These tablishments are so organized that a di vision of the work among technical helpers is cerried out as in a faciory, thus making it possible to organize establishments ex- In 1887 | mother plants, most Undy first secured of few and four | tensive enough to. handle the necessarily large numbers of indlviduals of numerous species. No other breeder has done as much to emphasize the necessity of using large numbers, of working on a large scale, in efforts to secure’ the hundreds of millions of dolfrs of additional values inherent in {the heredity of our plants and animals. One Result is Prosperity. The men now in charge of Minnesota's famous plant-breeding establishmont, op1 anized by Mr. Hays, say that with an | WILLIAM GE expenditure of less than $20,000 in 1508 the | | f1eld crops of the state were made to yleld |an additional §2,000,000. This figure is based Vice President American Bree | on the modestiy estimated increase of the | new varieties above the old kinds displaced {by them of $2 per acre on 1,000,000 acres |now planted to the seven new varieties of corn, wheat, oats. barley and flax first distributed to Minnesota farmers by Mr. | Hays. Ten years ago he interested the United States Department of Agn(-u!luru“ in his experiments, and with its ald Ted | in the organization of co-operative plant b dings establishments at the experiment atibps of several surrounding states. Numerous other state experiment stations are now following by organizin state plant-breeding establishments after the general plan adopted by Minnesota While Mr. Hays is widely known as a plant-breeder, he is also a leader in de oping plans for creative breeding in ani- | mal improvement. Ip fact, his first work In the field of creating new values by | breeding was in investigating ‘animal breed- {ing. But owing to the large expense and ‘IIQ‘ progress with large animals, which | bear relagely few young at long inter- als, he saw the necessity of using plants for a decade of preliminary study of how to make & breed or variety over, thereby securing large economic results. By first succeeding in securing for the farmers of the state large added yllds in produc- ing valuable new crops he was able to give @ reason for asking for public funds with which ubu-aulml-u'uuul | ing. plants, and to make a broad study of the | plant and animal indroduction and on the science of heredity. Putting Theory to Practice. When the 'decade of work was neamy finished the scientist proved also the broad economist. Proof that a dollar would pro- duce % $100 or 10,00 per cent, on the Investment, seemed too important In its application to $,000,000,000 worth of Ameri- can farm erops and §3,000,000,000 worth of |® MOst promising future of usefulness in American- farm animals to be ignofed as a matter of statecraft. Ten to 20 per cent ORGE ders Association of increase of §7,- 000,000 - worth of farm products means approxi- mately $1,000,000,- 000 annually in additional protits to American farmers, costing mere trifle. Mr. Hays' experience with legislative bodies and their need of being shown the importance of liberally providing for breed- ing led to the formation of a national | movement to promote scientific breeding. his was centered In the American Breed- ers' assoclation, of which be is the execu- tive secretary. That organization has nearly fifty committees at work on the ditferent phases of plant and animal breed- There are committees on breeding draft horses, driving horses, saddlers, dalry cows, beef cattle, and dual purpose or double-decked cows good for both beef and milk. Other committees deal with sheep breeding, the improvement of swine, poultry, pet stock, -fur-bearing animals and game birds; and there is even & committee on eugenics which studies here- dity in the genus homo,—with President David Starr Jordan of Leland Stanford university as chalrman. There are committees which formulate the best plans for the breeders of wheat, of corn and of alfalfa; and even & com- mittee on the improvement of beans, that we may have better pole beans, better Boston baked beans—that we may better “know beans/' . There are committees on | congratulated him | teachers, encouragement of the theoretical study heredity. Some of Mr. Hays' friends have on the successful es- tablishment of this . vigoro! which has affiliated the scientists, the and the practical breeders of plants and of animals in & most effective co-operative organization, and which this unique fleld. Better Tralning for Youth. But, ger than a billion-dollar increase in the earnings of our farms through | plant and animal improvement is the movement to carry vocational school education to nearly 20,000,000 boys and girls. Mr. Hays is a na- tional leader in reorganizing our rural and city schools to supply to | o away grain cradle. soliated from which the farm youth are tr can in the studies common in addition studies in agriculture and making. Above the local schools are high | and of | splendidly | courses for secondary the rural school. | | village school | culture iuach school. | tion Agriculture and Secretary of the merican Breeders Associslion all country boys agricultural training and to all city boys training in the mechanic industries, arts and trades; and to all girls In country and in city training in the sclence and art of homemaking. En thusiasts estimate that our total produc- tion, now approaching $30,000,000,000 an- nually, would be increased 10 per cent, or | $3,000,000,000 annually, by a system of schools in which the agricultural and non- agricultural Industries were efficlently taught When it was realized that our present system of schools but poorly draws out the full powers of our boys, and that so many of our men “fiddle around” rather | than become efficient producers, it may be | found that the possible increase is vastly | more than 10 per cent. But be that as it may, It is easy to belleve that the effi- clency of our homemaking eould be ln- creased very materially if our men were trained to produce more ‘with which to make and support homes and our women were tralned to make the most out of thelr homemaking opportunities. With better homemaking a stronger soclal status, a higher civilization, develops all | American farm boys and girls. along the lne That our nation should not skimp' the classes in agriculture for | the farm boys, and the shop work for the town boys, nor the laborat rooms and kitchens for tho be the wives our productive and the mothers of the next of our American cilizens, is emp rever bef And college work, conginuation for mothers, igned to place the gplain industries and the keeping of homes on'a scientific basis, have no more effective champion than the subject of this sketch School System Mr. Hays the such glorious and bl with and practice of workers generation we clas research of Future, little rural sed memory ‘pass the spinning wheel and the He sees in its place the con- and village school an sported These schools work than now to all schoolg and home school rural to mainly In school supply far wag strong schools splendidly combining the technical the vocational school subjeet them veritable colle; of . the equipped fo teach ‘agriculture. supply the closing those who urll from the school to theglarm or to teach The stdfte normal schools us to re |and the state colleges of agriculture and | mechanic arts stand at the top of the system. There Is inspiration in figures. Of §,000,000 rural school pupils this educator estimates that 5000000 live in,rural communitics where there is sufficlent wealth to sup- port the large consalidation rural and with an instructor in agri- and another in home-making m The other 1,000000 live in communities too isolated parsely set- tled to make it practicable to have the consolidated rural school with its ‘wagons with which to trausport the pupils to and from school, but will adhere to the little distriet school Thirty thousand teachers and 30,000 teachers of home living in daily communicat active children with 5,000,000 farms and farm homes,—think of the speedy evolu- of the countryside. What a fleld of work for 00,000 teachers trained in hurdreds of high schools highly equipped to teach farm subjects, and 200 state col- leges of agriculture and state normal schools, each with its department of agri- cultural education! Army of Tralned Workers. A noble body of trained fgrmers and or of agriculture science and art on. through the | model home-makers would be' sent back to school districts by agricultural high schools, like those of Minnesota and Georgla, equipped to accomodate with a high-grade secondary schpol course 200,00 What an inspiration 6,000,000 farm boys and girls would carry to the farm homes from fifty agricultural colieges, hundreds of agricul- tural high schools, and 3,00 consolldated rural and village schools! A vast body of ngw knowledge of new strains of plants, and of new famllies of highly efficlent pure-bred animals would spring from the fifty experiment station farms at the state coliege, 40 branch station farms, and 30,000 ten-acre farms In connection with the consolidated rural schools. But not the least Interesting re the fact developed in Mr. Hays' invesligations |upon which he bases his vision of the | educational riches In store for the farm boys and girls. The fifty agricultural col- leges of the respective states and terri- tories; the agricultural high school which he and others have developed in the Uni- ersity of Miunesota, and its brood of ‘o~ or fifty progeny in several states north and south; and the 0 consolidated rural schools in Oblo, Indiana, Florida, and other states have forecast the entire future Lscheme. These latter schools are so suc- s who are to | asized as | some | people, | vocational | !resarul that it would be like having tries |to stop the progress of the threshing ma | chine, or mowing machine, to try o sto} their soon possessing the land That they will cost tens of not be a deterrent. bec increase production hund nd even billlons.—with Increased efficlency in i civilization for the great productive classes all thrown In extra. Someone has | tinely sald t putting this into actual oper will turn the way trom the false soclallsm. Mr. said: | “You cannot pea common people who have by tions and broadly onal ects—a new entific knowledge will | not mere workers they will also be its owner ¥or the City milliens. will they will ¢ willions worth of our home life and a. ause ds o viston tide a in thelr vo the trad! d the agriculture the land schoo’ed people t of of be vision in- Joys | Mr. Hays | dustrial education and girls of the country He departments for nd trades includes clty, wel: as of the sees In the city schools mechanic industries, arts schools of and courses in home economics shools | He sdvocated nume and | national laws, a number > al- | ready on the statute books tors who at first feared that vocational studies would narrow our schools are slowly, but sirely coming to acknow'edge that the science and art of the and home-making of the { breadth. interest, efficienc: scholarship to our schools. Mr. Hays has a those changes which dustrial corporation to as possible to its emplo; capital and labor tion. None sees more clearly the national value of co-operation among farmers and other producers to engble them Ively to for such parts of their -business their needs, as the individual cannot do for himseif. 1l the the next at 50 to develop native abilities they will hest natural re- to the lite the life ra- plants and ani- 1 as business n all state ich a has ous of w industr people adds 1 even keen anpreciation of lead the n- 1 stock thus to bring into effective are as muy co-opera- and so well bel'ef expre that step conserve and the of our boys and girls {care for and utilize all Next in Importanc resources of people he pla of domestic at our soure: | source | mals. If by sceking out, segregating, multiply- ing and using the best strain In each species of plant and animal, instead of the common kinds, we add nearly $1,000,000,000 | annually, and if by glving technical indus- |trial trajoing to b we could add | more than $2.000,000,000 annually to our pro- |duction, all our taxes for national, state |ana 1ocal public expenses would be re- turned to the people. But_ the larger | service is in showing how to organize our schools so as to keep the boys and ginls studying longer, how to increase thelr gen- eral and ethical culture, and with this | training of the man because of his high nature to train him in supplying for him- selt and his family the larger needs which come with education. our our s ds The Passing of C. Q. D. In the wrecking of the Puritan of the Graham & Morton line on Lake Michigan there was disclosed & bit of news whigh had been concealed from the public. The signal for “help” in the wireless codes, is no longer the famous C Q D, but § § 8. This change, the wireless telegraph ¢om- panies say, they were forced to midke through the abuse of the C Q D' signal by emateurs who practically appropriated it for their own amusement. Laws governing the use of wireless tel- egraphy are long overdue in view of the mischievous interference with commercial systems by amateurs. When & code signal upon which lives and property depend is exposed to abuse the need for government Inurt'*-mu becomes apparent.—Chicage