BREEniNG FOR INTRINSIC QUALITY. 



57 



apple will serve as an example of the first class, where we reproduce the 

 mother plant asexually, as by buds or cuttings, there being only bud variation 

 and no further adulteration through fertilization. Wheat, which is self-pol- 

 lenated, but which we reproduce by sexually produced seeds, will serve to 

 illustrate the second method of breeding. Corn, which is accustomed to the 

 freest and widest cross-pollenation, will serve to illustrate the third, and by 

 far the most difficult general method of breeding. I use the term "breeding" 

 in its general or widest sense, so as to include all operations which assist 

 in securing blood lines better adapted to the desired purpose. 



The first operation is securing the best foundation stocks, whether util- 

 izing varieties at hand known to be superior, or by accession from the out- 

 side, securing others and testing them beside known standard sorts. We 

 should always place much effort on securing the best possible start. Of the 

 possible final improvements more than half is ofttimes secured by a wise 

 choice of foundation stocks. Not infrequently ultimate failure is met because 

 of a hasty and ill advised start. Breeders are in competition, and no one 

 should allow his competitors to start with superior foundation stock and he 

 with a handicap. This selection of original varieties should be from among 

 as large numbers as practicable, and with a broad knowledge of the correlated 

 qualities required to make up the largest unit of economic and artistic values 

 in the desired line. As the methods of selecting are here much the same as 

 selecting among newly formed varieties, details will be passed over. 



In making hybrid varieties the mere manipulations of emasculating and 

 cross-pollenating, though sometimes tedious, are usually exceedingly simple, 

 and in many cases may best be left to natural agencies. The choice of varie- 

 ties to mate, however, presents unusual difficulties. In some cases, e. g., Bur- 

 bank's plums, experience has proven that the union of certain blood lines 

 often results in an unusual proportion of superior progeny; and in animal 

 breeding certain out-crosses have so often proved superior that they have 

 gained popularity. But for the most part crosses must be made between 

 those varieties which most nearly approach the desired ideal, and which will 

 supplement each other; and then the chances must be taken of securing occa- 

 sionally superior parent plants and effective blood lines. True, in some cases, 

 we can gradually introduce a small proportion of the attenuated blood of 

 some form strong in a needed characteristic, but undesirable in others. Thus 

 the thirty-second part of the blood of a hardy native crab migiit be utilized 

 to make a hardier form of apple for the far Northwest. Since hybrids may 

 combine their innumerable characteristics in such a multitude of forms it is 

 not strange that we find it necessary to seek from among tens and hundreds 

 of thousands that one iiidividtial or small group of plants which shall possess 

 the desired correlation of qualities. If all the words of a dictionary were 

 on slips of paper and placed indiscriminately in a pile, we could be certain of 

 securing a given word only by looking over the whole pile. The combina- 

 tions possible in hybrid individuals between two species or varieties are 

 vastly more numerous than the number of words it is possible to make by 

 combining the twenty-six letters of our alphabet; and where the blood of 

 three or more species is intermingled the complexity is made still greater. 

 We must expect to select from among large numbers. 



