Experiments in the Hybridization ok Cereals. 427 



whose best head was four and three-eighths inches in length, 

 and contained forty-seven grains, by giving it good soil and 

 ample room, and by selecting for seed the best head of each 

 annual product, after but four consecutive years, Major Hal- 

 lett obtained a head that was eight and three-fourths inches 

 long, and contained one hundred and twenty-three grains. 

 Surprising as is this improvement, which affords a useful 

 lesson upon the importance of selecting seed, it is not to be 

 conceded that the advantage thus secured will be permanent, 

 or that a new variety has been produced. Only a highly 

 bred form of an old variety, Hallett's " Pedigree Wheat " 

 must rapidly revert to that identical type, unless the care 

 which produced it be systematically maintained. 



I have introduced this account of Major Hallett's experi- 

 ment (o aid in illustrating the superior advantages possessed 

 by hybridization followed by selection over selection 

 employed alone. Had Major Hallett begun by crossing 

 judiciously a few of the very best varieties of wheat within 

 his reach, he would have had as the issue a large number of 

 forms, some of which, undoubtedly, by combining the desir- 

 able characters of the parents, to the exclusion of the infe- 

 rior ones, would have been much superior to the original 

 sorts. Thus at the start he would have tal<en a long stride 

 in advance ; but crossing would have given him another 

 advantage. His young varieties, possessing greater mobil- 

 ity than the old varieties, whose character, by unvarying 

 transmission through many generations, had acquired great 

 stability, would have yielded far more readily than these to 

 the ameliorating influences afterward to be employed. If, 

 then, he had applied to these new gains his principle of selec- 



