Excerpt from Improving Pastures and Grasslands for the Northeastern States at the U. S. Regional Pasture Research Laboratory These differences among plants are the raw materials of plant breeding; Since plants or strains occurring naturally are seldom outstanding in more than a few of these characteristics, it is the task of the plant breeder to com bine the desirable characters from different plants or strains by appropriate genetic and breeding methods, thus synthesizing a new variety superior to each of its parents in one or several ways. The ideal combination of all desirable characters may not, and probably will not, be obtained for many years. The process of building new strains of forage species must proceed step by step, each advance, however, representing a practical benefit in terms of better and more economically produced animal products. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.