Nilsson: Plant-Breeding in Sweden 



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acters which are clearly morphological 

 indicate to us the absence or presence of 

 qualities determining the practical value, 

 is an advantage which can not be over- 

 estimated. It makes it possible for us 

 to make some progress, at least, toward 

 the desired goal, from the moment that 

 the first generation is examined. 



THE USE OF PRACTICAL TRIALS. 



For the final and decisive determina- 

 tion of agricultural value, we have had 

 on the contrary to depend on practical 

 trials. It was thus a great advantage 

 to our Institute to have a strictly 

 agricultural organization and equip- 

 ment, due to its close relations with 

 practical men. It is solely the progeny 

 of these "elite" parents, cultivated in 

 an ordinary field under normal agri- 

 cultural conditions, that determines the 

 practical value of the inherited qualities 

 of the numerous new forms. To reach 

 the final decision, cultivation and careful 

 examination during a long series of 

 years are ordinarily necessary. 



In order to be able to apply all these 

 processes with exactitude, and with the 

 order necessary when thousands of 

 forms are dealt with (in 1912 there 

 were more than 9500 numbers in our 

 trial grounds) we have had to invent 

 niimerous practical arrangements. We 

 have had to establish special genealogical 

 tables, corresponding to the systems of 

 fixed forms, with a nimierical arrange- 

 ment applying to the parallel genea- 

 logical collections which we made, as 

 well as to the trial grounds, the records, 

 the labels, etc. The interior arrange- 

 ment of the work rooms, and the whole 

 organization of the laboratories, had 

 also to be on lines which were abso- 

 lutely systematic and easily inspected. 

 We have reached the point where we 

 have at Svalof an establishment that is 

 probably unique in its complete adap- 

 tation to its own method of independent 

 work. Our institution and our method 

 thus comprise, together, a unity which 

 promises to perpetuate both our special 

 system and the intensity which has 

 always marked our application of it. 



In its broad outlines, this order of work 

 was established in a very few years; so 

 we were able to demonstrate its opera- 



tions for the first time at the general 

 congress of Swedish agriculture in, 1896, 

 by several hundred varieties which were 

 new and stable, and under comparative 

 observation. During the course of our 

 work it was also obviously stated how 

 numerous and decisive the lines of 

 progress were which we had already 

 utilized practically for the benefit of 

 Swedish agriciilture, before it had been 

 even realized in other places what we 

 were trying to do. 



WORK ON WIDE BASIS. 



By the infinite number of stable forms 

 which with this came to light in our 

 culture material, the amelioration of 

 economic plants had a basis far wider 

 than the old method could give, with 

 its limited number of chosen varieties; 

 the possibilities of producing valuable 

 novelties were increased, because the 

 qualities at our disposition varied widely, 

 and among them — as our experience 

 soon showed — are included the season 

 of maturity, cold-resistance, disease- 

 resistance, etc., qualities which are of a 

 great practical value, but which had 

 previously been quite inaccessible to the 

 work of plant breeding. 



Since the forms which we regard as 

 varieties are systematic and independent 

 unities, although of secondary order, the 

 fact that they breed true considerably 

 extends their possibilities, for they can 

 be propagated without the necessity of 

 renovation too often by the purchase of 

 new seed. 



The constancy which distinguishes 

 them concerns many characters and 

 qualities, as to whose transmission we 

 had never dared to depend. As it 

 persists in a notable degree among all 

 the plants — at least, during the early 

 generations — whatever there is in the 

 variety in question of a particularly 

 inheritable nature becomes more obvious 

 than before, a circumstance which 

 greatly facilitates the expertising and 

 the control. 



It is very true that the most special- 

 ized- kinds demand rnore judgment and 

 care on the part of the cultivator, but 

 they equally increase his chance of as 

 large a financial profit as possible, when 

 he has learned to make a judicious 



