133 



Table Showing the Importance of Each Additional 

 Generation of Selection. 



Number 

 of ears on 

 Length Containing finest 

 Year. inches. grains. plant. 



1857 ... Original ear 4| ... 47 



1858 ... Finest ear 6i ... 79 ... 10 



1859 ... Finest ear 7| ... 91 ... 22 



1860 ... Ears imperfect from 



wet season ... ... 39 



1861 ... Finest ear 8f ... 123 ... 52 



Thus, by means of repeated selection almie, the length of the 

 ears has been doubled, their contents nearly trebled, and the 

 " tillering " power of the seed increased five-fold. I have given 

 the results obtained in these particularyears — 1857-1861 — because, 

 being the first years of the series of the wheat with which I 

 originally commenced, the improvement was, as already stated, more 

 rapid, but also especially because increased contents of the ears 

 was in these selections the sole object sought ; whereas, since 1861, 

 other points besides the increased contents of the ear governed the 

 selections, and thus the improvement in this particular was not in 

 the other varieties, even in the first years of each series, so rapid. 



I will now give a tabular statement of the results obtained 

 over a very extended series of years, in which I shall show clearly 

 that, notwithstanding the unfavourable years which we have lately 

 gone through, the effect of the repeated annual selection of the 

 adual best plants for breeding purposes has been to so raise the 

 normal standard of productiveness that the contents of the original 

 ears of each variety (those ears the very best, be it always re- 

 membered, which could be found anywhere) have practically been 

 doubled, and this, notwithstanding that the wheat was grown 

 throughout that long period without once having the advantage 

 which a change of soil gives. The following table shows the in- 

 creased contents of ear obtained in four varieties of wheat by re- 

 peated selection continued in one instance for twenty years. 



