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patience and care, were so profitable in their results—the essential 
results have been confirmed in so many other ways and by so many 
practical men—that they are worthy of being quoted in this con- 
nection. . 
He began with a single,head of wheat, chosen irrespective of size 
or vigor, but of a variety producing a good quality of grain. The 
head was 42 inches long and had 47 grains, which were carefully 
planted in rows, 1 grain in a place, 12 inches apart each way. At 
harvest the plants were carefully compared, and the one with the 
largest number of heads was chosen, and the grains from the best 
head of this best plant were planted the next year in the same way; 
and this was continued year after year, choosing each time for seed 
the best head from the most prolific plant. At ‘the first harvest the 
best plant bore 10 heads, at the second 22, at the third 39, at the fourth 
02, the best head of which was 8? inches long and bore 123 grains. 
(Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc., Vol. X XII, p. 371, and plate.) 
This was the origin of the famous “ Pedigree wheat.” Later, and 
in a similar way, he made the varieties of “ Pedigree oats” and 
* Pedigree barley,” all very prolific, and each becoming famous. He 
gave the name “ Pedigree ” to these varieties because his process was 
precisely analogous to that of improving live stock by breeding to 
points and strengthening the heredity of the good points by pedigree. 
Still later he gave his riper conclusions (Trans. Brit. Assoc. Adv. 
Sci., 1869, p. 118) drawn from his long series of experiments, in sub- 
stance as follows: That every fully developed plant, whether of 
wheat, oats, or barley, has one ear superior in reproductive power to 
any of the others on the plant; that every such plant has one grain 
more productive than any other, and that this best grain grows on 
the best ear; that the superior vigor of this grain is transmissible to 
its progeny; that by selection this superiority is accumulated; that 
the improvement is at first very rapid, but that 1 in successive years it 
evradually grows less; that an improved type is the result, and that 
by careful selection the improvement can be kept up. Another paper 
on his pedigree system, read before the Farmers’ Club at Birming- 
ham in 1874, giving many interesting facts, is republished in sub- 
stance in the monthly reports of the United States Department of 
Agriculture for August and September, 1874, page 381. 
The practical fact underlying this relates to selection. “ Natural 
selection ” is undoubtedly the “principle by which species are pre- 
served, whether it accounts for their origin or not, and artificial 
selection of seed is the only method by which any variety of grain 
can be improved or even maintained. Without it the variety always 
either runs out or changes; how rapidly this takes place depends 
iipon various circumstances. 
It is unnecessary to multiply further proofs, because all experi- 
ment points the same way, and the law is universally recognized. I 
have merely cited a few out of many scientific experiments. The 
principle is never denied; it is simply too often neglected in practice. 
In this connection it is well to remember that it is easier to detericrate 
a crop by using bad seed, or even by simply neglecting the selection of 
the good, than it is to improve-an already good variet y; the down- 
hill road is the easiest traveled. The selection of seed to keep up 
the vigor and the fruitfulness of the varieties cultivated are more 
