®Jy? Cornell 1R? a^t«g-01o«rsf h 



LESSON FOR THE FARM 



L. H. Bailey, Director 

 Course for the Farm, Royal Gilkey, Supervisor 



VOL. II. No. 38 



ITHACA, N. Y. 

 APRIL 15, 1913 



PLANT-BREEDING 

 SERIES No. 1 



PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF PLANT-BREEDING* 



C. H. Myers 



The possibility of breeding plants was not wholly unknown to the 

 ancient peoples. One of the Latin poets showed familiarity with the idea 

 when he wrote the verses: 



" Still will the seeds, though chosen with toilsome pains, 

 Degenerate, if man's industrious hand 

 Cull not each year the largest and the best." 



Fig. 74. — Individual rows of wheat 



It must not be supposed, on the other hand, that the breeding of plants 

 was well understood. Long after the breeding of animals had become an 

 established practice, the field of plant-breeding remained unexplored, 



♦Paper No. 34, Department of Plant-breeding, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 



Published semi-monthly throughout the year by the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell 

 University. Entered as second-class matter October 13, 1011, at the post office at Ithaca, N'. Y., under 

 the Act of Congress of July 16, 1894. 



[1715] 



