424 ELEMENTARY SPECIES IN AGRICULTURE. 



year 1867. At the time of the harvest of that year he had inspected, 

 as he told me, a large number of his rye fields and selected all the ears 

 which seemed to him to surpass the others quite strikingly. He 

 brought home a handful of them, repeated the trial and mixed their 

 seeds. This mixed condition of his seed in the beginning of his race 

 has now become the weak point, where the whole principle of his 

 method is open to criticism. 



The seeds were sown next year, and in the harvest the same 

 selection of the best ears was repeated. Care was taken to exclude 

 all those, which by some external condition could have profited from 

 more space or more manure than the remainder, and could have 

 grown large by such accidental means. No care, however, was 

 taken to isolate the individuals and to sow their seeds separately, 

 the principle being that all the plants belonged to one race, and that 

 this race had to be ameliorated. This principle of ameliorating a 

 race without isolating its possible constituents seemed at that period 

 to be the right one, though now it can hardly be considered as 

 scientifically correct. 



Each year in the same way the best ears were chosen from the 

 continuance of the choicest strain, and after the exclusion of all ears 

 of minor value the remainder were sown on a field and multiplied 

 without further selection in order to produce all the seed required for 

 the sowing of the whole farm. It took three or four years to reach 

 this quantity. After twenty years of continued selection the choice 

 strain was so much improved as to produce a race distinctly richer 

 than the ordinary varieties of rye in middle Germany, and slowly but 

 gradually it found its way first into the surrounding farms and after- 

 wards over large parts of the country. During this period Rimpau 

 was enabled to sell all his harvest as seed-grain, obtaining in this 

 way a most satisfactory recompense for his labors. Shortly after- 

 wards the rye of Schlanstedt was introduced into France, where it 

 soon overthrew the local varieties, especially in the departments 

 north of Paris. Even there it is ordinarily cultivated from original 

 seed, produced directly by Rimpau or multiplied only during some 

 few generations by seed merchants. 



For our critical purpose, it is highly interesting to note how a 

 French agriculturist. Professor Schribaux of the Institut Agro- 

 nomique of Paris explains the conditions of keeping the Schlan- 

 stedt rye up to its original qualities. He says: "In order to do this, 

 care must be taken to sow the seeds on a field which is as far removed 

 as possible from all other cultures of rye. Moreover, the field should 



