Plant-Breeding for Farmers. 



155 



In the production of new varieties, the breeder would expect to use 

 careful methods of hybridization and selection, but in general these 

 methods are too complex for ordinary use. However, the writer be- 

 lieves that it is possible even for practical farmers, to produce varieties 

 of value and to greatly improve the yield of their own crop. There are 

 three simple methods of wheat-breeding which appeal to the writer as 

 practical for farmers gener- 

 ally to undertake. One of 

 these methods of improve- 

 ment is the selection of 

 chance variations or sports 

 and the propagation from 

 them of improved varieties. 

 A second method is the sys- 

 tematic selection of the best 

 yielding plants from a well 

 known race to secure more 

 highly productive strains, 

 and a third method is the 

 selection of largs heads or 

 ears for seed. Following is 

 a discussion of these three 

 methods. 



Nezv varieties from chance 

 variations or sports 

 of zvlicat. 



Selecting the good plants, 

 first generation. — A consider- 

 able number of our best va- 

 rieties or races of wheat have 

 been produced by selecting 

 in the field or along the 

 roadsides, individual plants 

 which because of their 



Fic. 141. — J'ariaiioiis in sij:e of heads of Gold 

 Coin Zi'licat. Three-fourths natural size. 



marked superiority were recognized as especially good plants and pre- 

 served for seed purposes. 



Marked variations or sports possessing improved characters occa- 

 sionally occur in fields of cereals and these are sometimes found by ob- 

 serving growers and developed by selection into valuable races. 



ATany of our well known races of wheat have apparently origina- 

 ted in this way. The Tappahannock wheat which, in 1872, was consid- 

 ered to be a valuable race was found in 1854 by a Mr. Boughton, of Essex 



