IMPROVEMENT OF PLANTS. 205 



the character of the tree as well as in the size and quality of the fruit. 

 More than this, the stubborn fixedness of type is modified, mollified 

 and brought more under the control of the experimenter. The varia- 

 tions in environment, just alluded to, act upon the protoplasm of the 

 plant and induce a response to accord with them, and these responses 

 are manifest in the leaves, flowers and fruit, which will keep a true 

 record of all the changes in environment. By simply adding to the 

 quantity of salt in sea-water, surprising changes are quickly made 

 in the growth, form and colorings of many of the lower orders 

 of sea-animals. The same unchangeable law applies to plants as to 

 animals. In the development of the sand cherry the horticulturist 

 can control: (a) the surrounding air (by use of the greenhouse), 

 (b) the character of the food, (c) the seed planted (always select- 

 ing that of the most nearly ideal plants), (d) the possible changes, 

 by budding, grafting and hybridizing, (e) the water supply, (f) the 

 amount and kind of cultivation. All kinds of violent changes and 

 breaks in the natural way of propagation will cause an inclination to 

 sport, and a sport is sometimes a near approach to the ideal. 



The cattle-breeders tell us to name what we want and give 

 them time, and we shall have it, no matter how difficult the task- 

 may seem. Semi-barbarians even have learned that "like produces 

 like" and propagate from what they look upon as the best ; but they 

 have no logical plan of procedure, and what is considered the mosi 

 desirable one year might be stigmatized as passe before the close 

 of the next. With them "best" is but another term for designating 

 the prevailing fashion, the standard varying like the inconstant moon 

 or a lady's head gear. 



To succeed one must first find out what he wants to do ; he 

 must know the object to be attained and then pursue it vigorously 

 without variableness or even a "shadow of turning." He must 

 understand the principles and laws that govern heredity, so that he 

 may not be continually undoing with one hand what he has already 

 accomplished with the other. He must know that the resemblance 

 to ancestors is not merely a general one, confining itself to shape, 

 size, color and flavor ; but that it appears in the form and structure 

 of every organ in bud, flower, branch and root, in behavior under 

 unusual conditions, in vigor, in liability to certain diseases, in power 

 to resist enemies, as well as in peculiarities of foliage, flowers and 

 fruit. He must be a man with a purpose, must have a clear and 

 well defined standard of excellence, and every step taken should 

 count one towards its attainment. 



By wise selection and proper hybridization defects should, one by 

 one, be eliminated ; so. on the other hand, excellencies, at first so 



