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. All of this has been made possible by the discovery, mentioned in the preceding chapter, that many characteristics of organisms are units and behave as such in heredity; they can be added to races or subtracted from them almost at will. Pure varieties breeding true can be established permanently by taking into account the Mendelian laws of heredity. Similar results have been accomplished in many other plants and in many animals. A cotton has been produced which combines early growth, by which it escapes the ravages of the boll weevil, with the long fiber of the finest Sea Island varieties. Corn of almost any desired percentage of sugar or starch, within limits, can be produced to order in a few seasons. The hornless character of certain varieties of cattle can be transferred to any chosen breed. Sheep have been produced combining the excellent mutton qualities of one breed with the hornlessness of another, and with the fine wool qualities of still a third. And so on from canary birds to draft horses. New races can be built up to meet almost any demand, with almost any desired combination of known characters, and these races remain stable. Possibilities in this direction seem to be limited only by our present and rapidly lessening ignorance of the facts of Mendelian heredity in organisms--facts to be had for the looking. What is man that we should not be mindful of him? Why should we utilize all this new knowledge, all these immense possibilities of control and of creation, only for our pigs and cabbages? In this era of conservation should not our profoundest concern be the conservation of human protoplasm? "The State has no material resources at all comparable with its citizens, and no hope of perpetuity except in the intelligence and integrity of its people." As Saleeby puts it: "There is no wealth but life; and if the inherent quality of life fails, neither battle-ships, nor libraries, nor symphonies, nor Free Trade, nor Tariff Reform, nor anything else will save a nation." In this work of the creation and establishment of new and valuable varieties, two essential biological facts are made use of. The raw materials are furnished by variation--by the fact that there are individual and racial differences. The means of accomplishing results are furnished by heredity--the fact that offspring resemble the parents, not only in generalities, but even in particulars, and according to certain definite formulas.