SELECTION IN GRAIN-GROWING. 355 



During these investigations no single circumstance more forcibly 

 illustrated the necessity for repeated selection than the fact that, of 

 the grains in the same ear, one is found to excel greatly all the others 

 in vital power, as in the case of the Bellevue Talavera. The original 

 two ears together contained 87 grains ; these were all planted singly. 

 One of them produced ten ears containing 688 grains, and not only 

 could the produce of no other single grain compare with them, but the 

 finest ten ears which could be collected from the produce of the whole 

 of the other 86 grains contained only 598 ; yet supposing that this 

 superior grain grew in the smaller of the two original ears, and that 

 this contained but 40 grains, there must still have been 39 of these 

 86 grains which grew in the same ear. So far as regards contents of 

 ears. 



The next year the grains from the largest ear of the finest plant of 

 the previous year were planted singly, twelve inches apart, in a con- 

 tinuous row ; one of them produced a plant consisting of fifty-two ears ; 

 those next to and on either side of it of twenty-nine and seventeen 

 ears respectively ; and the finest of all the other plants consisted of 

 only forty ears. 



The following are the chief points of the standard in the order of 

 their importance, but all have to be duly considered : 



1. Hardihood of constitution. 



2. Trueness of type. 



3. Quality of sample. 



4. Productiveness. 



5. Power of tillering. 



6. Stiffness and toughness of straw. 



7. Earliness of ripening. 



The system of selection here pursued is as follows : A grain pro- 

 duces a plant, consisting of many ears. Then are planted the grains 

 from these ears in such a manner that each ear occupies a row by it- 

 self, each of its grains occupying a hole in this row, the holes being 

 twelve inches apart every way. At harvest, after the most careful 

 study and comparison of the plants from all these grains, the finest 

 one is selected, which is proof that its parent-grain was the best of 

 all, under the peculiar circumstances of that season. This process is 

 repeated annually, starting every year with the proved best grain, 

 although the verification of this superiority is not obtained until the 

 following harvest. 



The subjoined statement will illustrate this system of selection, as 

 the facts given are due to its influence alone : the kind of seed, the 

 land, and the system of culture employed were precisely the same for 

 every plant for four consecutive years ; neither was any manure used, 

 nor any artificial means of fostering the plants resorted to. 



The following table shows the character of each additional gen- 

 eration of selection : 



