AN IDEAL BEAN 



arrangements above described. A process of selection has 

 been at work. Those that would not modify their arrange- 

 ments to suit new methods of farming have been suppressed. 



But it is in some of the cultivated plants themselves that 

 one sees the most extraordinary results of selection. 



The Wild Cabbage is still to be found on sea-clifFs on the 

 south-western coast of England, and the Wild Turnip 

 occasionally occurs in fields. There is nothing particularly 

 interesting or attractive about either of them. 



Yet from the one has been produced cabbage, cauliflower, 

 seakale, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and kohlrabi ; and the 

 other has given the endless varieties of turnips. For the 

 most part these extraordinary changes have been brought 

 about in a perfectly straightforward way, by just choosing the 

 biggest and finest sorts for seed. 



Some of the feats performed by gardeners in this way are 

 almost incredible. A United States seedsman evolved the 

 idea of a perfect bean from his inner consciousness. It had 

 a particular shape which he described to a noted grower of 

 beans. Two years later his ideal bean was produced ! 



The growers of pineapples used to have a great deal of 

 difficulty on account of the pineapple cuttings becoming 

 unhealthy. Sometimes 63 per cent were more or less 

 diseased. Then certain growers began to carefully select 

 disease-proof pineapples, and finally reduced the percentage 

 of diseased cuttings to four per cent. Another French observer 

 (M. Roujon) by continually selecting the smallest seeds, was 

 able to obtain corn only eight inches high. 



But by far the most interesting and important researches 

 have been those dealing with roots and tubers. Several 

 people have, in fact, done in a few years what it took primi- 

 tive man centuries to accomplish. 



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