III
HUMAN HEREDITY AND THE EUGENIC
PROGRAM
III
HUMAN HEREDITY AND THE EUGENIC PROGRAM
"A breed whose proof is in time and deeds;
What we are, we are—nativity is answer enough to objections."
A few years ago official recognition was taken of the disturbing fact that the annual wheat yield of Great Britain was grossly deficient in both quantity and quality. In 1900 The National Association of British and Irish Millers, with almost unprecedented sagacity, raised a fund to provide for a series of experiments under the direction of a competent biologist, in order to discover if possible some means of restoring the former yield and quality of the native wheats. The story of the result reads like a romance. The experimenter—Prof. R. H. Biffen—collected many different varieties of wheat, native and foreign, each of which had some desirable qualities, and studied their mode of inheritance. Now, after only a few years of experimentation a wheat has been produced and is being grown upon a large scale in which have been united this desirable character of one variety, that character of another. From each variety has been taken some valuable trait, and these have all been combined into one variety possessing the characteristics of a short full head, beardlessness, high gluten content, immunity to the devastating rust, a strong supporting straw, and a high yield per acre. A wheat made to order and fulfilling the "details and specifications" of the growers.
Manitoba and British Columbia opened up whole new lands of the finest wheat-growing capacity, but the season there is too short for the ripening of what were the finest varieties. This new specification was promptly met and the early ripening quality of some inferior variety was transferred to the varieties showing other highly desirable qualities, and these countries are now producing enormous quantities of the finest wheat in the world.