SELECTION. 33 



than nnmbers, they are better in such cases, as fruits or potatoes which are repro- 

 duced by cuttings or grafts, where the variety can be definitely described botan- 

 ically. It is expected that occasionally, when a newly originated variety of field 

 crop especially distinguishes itself for peculiar value, it may be given an additional 

 name as an especial distinction of merit. 



(0) Since many very valuable new varieties never gain commercial recognition, 

 and their originators secure neither credit nor profit, the need of adequate busi- 

 ness methods in installing among growers each valuable new variety is of great 

 importance. Experiment stations and the General Government need plans adapted 

 to each new class of varieties originated, as do also seed firms and amateur breed- 

 ers. Gift packages accomplish this in some cases. In others useful new varieties 

 are thus discredited and wholly or partially lost. Strong seed merchandising 

 firms and large numbers of experienced seed growers are most important agencies. 

 The Minnesota experiment station has had most encouraging success with its plan 

 of distributing no gift packages, but selling under pedigreed certificates to picked 

 growers of seeds, each of whom becomes a propagator for profit. The station 

 thus fosters the business interests of its many cooperators. Their desire to retain 

 the opportunity to cooperate in introducing successive new varieties stimulates 

 these cooperators to employ good methods and fair dealing. 



BREEDING BY SELECTION. 



The general plan to pursue in breeding plants is here divided into 

 two sections, in order that selection may be dealt with before taking 

 up the more complex question of combined hybridizing and selecting. 

 Selection is of two kinds: (1) Selection of seedling plants, and (2) 

 bud selection. 



SELECTION OF SEEDLING PLANTS. 



Most of the variation in plants has its origin in reproduction from 

 seed, the variation being, as a rule, the greater the more distant the 

 relationship between the two parents. This variation shows strongest 

 among the seedling plants, and to a much smaller extent among the 

 plants produced from the buds or cuttings taken from the seedling 

 plant. 



While half the battle is won by choosing the variety to serve as a 

 foundation stock, more than half of the remainder is often won by 

 the first one or two years' work in selecting mother plants within the 

 chosen variety. For example, the writer, in starting to breed from 

 several varieties of flax, used 100 seeds from the bulk grain of each 

 of seven varieties. The plants were grown singly in hills a foot apart 

 each way. It was desired to choose from among the plants of each 

 variety one plant foi- a mother of a stock to be developed into a strain 

 or variiity yielding a largo amount of seed i)er acre, and a second 

 plant to serve as the mother of a tall-growing strain or variety for 

 fiber. Upon inspecting the several plots the range of choice among 

 the individual plants was not nearly so great as had been anticipated. 

 There were no good types of heavy-yielding plants, and few, or none, 

 remarkable for ttieir height. 



In the same field with the crop nursery the seven varieties of flax 



2;3207— No. 29—01 3 



