One of the coming ways of feeding them is the discovery and use of new foods.  As in other things, after the war, whether we live in a better world or not, we shall live in an entirely different world, new ways, strange thoughts, and other foods.  For the most of the following, Business America and Current Opinion are responsible.

For the creation of new crop varieties or the improvement of those now in use we must depend upon the practical scientists who are engaged in plant breeding.  The work of one of these, Professor Buffum, has been accomplished in a region that is apparently sterile and where plants grow only by coaxing through artificial moisture.

His plant-breeding farms near Worland in the Big Horn Basin of Northern Wyoming lie at an elevation of 4000 feet, in a region of almost total natural aridity.

After twenty years’ work in Western agricultural colleges and Government Experiment Stations, Professor Buffum chose his present location because nowhere in the United States could he find conditions of soil and climate that induce to such a remarkable degree the breaking up of species, and mutation or “sporting” of plants.

When the modern plant breeder seeks to produce something new by cross-fertilization a problem is encountered.  For many years we were ignorant of the principle upon which nature operated in these hybrids or crosses.  Finally a Bohemian priest named Mendel discovered the law.  The central principle is that when the seed produced from a cross between two different species is planted, the progeny breaks up into well-defined groups.  A certain percentage of the plants resemble one of the parents, a smaller percentage are like the other parent, and the rest seem to be a blend of both parents.  These intermediates will not breed true to themselves, however; if seed from them is planted the progeny will split up into groups, showing the same percentages as the first generation to which they belonged.  This has been generally accepted by scientists.

In many of his productions Professor Buffum apparently has set the Mendelian law at defiance, for, by cross-fertilization, he has evolved plants which breed true to themselves, and their progeny does not break up into groups, according to the accepted theory.  They show specimens resembling each parent, with the third composed of seemingly, but not really, blended specimens.

These results are particularly vital in the development of plants adapted by selection for semi-arid agriculture.  The Professor believes that the great areas of high plain country to be found from Canada to Mexico can be made more productive through planting crop varieties that have been bred to withstand the existing conditions which produce meagre returns from the vast expanse of territory under the present methods.

In place of corn, which is difficult to mature even at moderate elevations, Professor Buffum has introduced improved emmers and the various hybrids resulting from crosses with other grains.