210 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



Bain and Essary (4) of Tennessee have obtained an 

 anthracnose-resistant clover by the selection of individual 

 resistant plants from fields where many plants became badly 

 afiFected. For a number of years they have been testing the 

 progeny of such individuals and selecting others until they are 

 confident they have a strain possessing a high degree of resist- 

 ance to this disease. 



Blinn (5) of the Colorado Agr. Expt. Station has obtained 

 by selection from a large number of plants, a strain of canta- 

 loupes resistant to leaf blight, a disease serious in that region. 



Orton (6) reports that Rivers and Sensation Sea Island 

 Cotton obtained originally several years ago by the selection of 

 a resistant type, has remained resistant to the wilt disease ever 

 since. The Dillen and Dixie wilt resistant strains of Upland 

 Cotton were obtained in the same way. 



Bolley (7) of North Dakota reports that he has obtained by 

 selection strains of flax resistant to wilt. 



Stuart (8) of Vermont has developed varieties of potatoes 

 partially resistant to late blight and possibly also to scab. 



The great advantage of this method of breeding is that the 

 plants already possess other desirable fixed characters while in 

 hybridization such desirable characters are broken up and 

 recombined. 



Oftentimes, however, it is impossible to obtain a desirable 

 resistant variety or to find even by careful observation any 

 individuals of a desirable variety that show marked resistance 

 to disease. It has been found possible in crossing a desirable 

 but susceptible variety with a closely related resistant but 

 otherwise undesirable plant to secure in the progeny of the 

 second generation some forms which possess the desired char- 

 acters, including that of resistance to disease. The first gener- 



4. Bain, Samuel M. and Essary, Samuel H., Selection for Disease- 

 Resistant Clover. Tenn. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 75 : i-io, Figs. 1-5, 

 1906. 



5. Blinn, Philo K. Breeding Cantaloupes. Am. Breed. Assoc. Rept. 4 : 

 165-172, 1908. 



6. Orton, W. A. The Development of Farm Crops Resistant to Dis- 

 ease. Year Book U. S. Dept. of Agr. 1908 : i. c. 463, 1909. 



7. Bolley, L. H. Breeding for Resistance or Immunity to Disease. 

 Am. Breed. Assoc. Rcpt. / : 131-135, 1905. 



8. Jones. L. R. and Stuart Wm. Disease Resistance of Potatoes. Vt. 

 Agr. Expt. Sta. Bui. 122 : 107-136, 1906. 



