20 THE CEREALS IN AiMERICA 



where but one stalk is grown in a hill. In the latter case the 

 size of the ear will not be a criterion of the size of the ear 

 where three stalks are grown in a hill. Where it is not possible 

 to make selection under field conditions, care should be taken 

 to select from among plants under like environment and subse- 

 quently subject to field conditions. 



" In selecting sugar beets," says Vilmorin,! " those roots are sought for that are 

 straight, long, and free from lateral branches. This is right, for those that are 

 branched are more difficult, and hence more expensive, to gather. Now, certain 

 growers of beet seed in the north of France once formed the idea — thinking, no 

 doubt, in this way to improve their varieties — of growing the plants which were to 

 be used as seed stocks in very rich deeply worked soil where they were very much 

 crowded together; so much so that i6 to 20, or even more, grew on one square 

 meter of ground. The result was that the beet assumed the form, and later the 

 length of a whipstock. They were not branched because the roots were very closely 

 crowded together. Their sugar content ^^'as abnormally high as a result of their 

 growing so close together, and the conclusions drawn from the form of the roots 

 and their sugar content, as determined in the laboratory, were tainted with error 

 because they did not represent qualities truly acquired, but modifications accidentally 

 imposed by external conditions. Thus these beets which were declared to be of 

 good shape and composition in the laboratory yielded seed which when sown in the 

 open field, produced branched roots of only moderate sugar content, because the 

 descendants had reassumed their true characters when they were released from the 

 restraint which had been artificially imposed upon the parent plants." 



41. Change of Seed. — A frequent change of seed is not 

 necessarily a good thing ; certainly it is not necessary to obtain 

 seed from distant parts of the country for a region whose soil 

 and climate are well suited to the crop. If the region is not 

 well adapted to the crop frequent new supplies of seed may be 

 helpful and even essential. Probably no part of the world is 

 better adapted to maize than is much of the central IMississippi 

 valley. There would seem to be no good reason for changing 

 seed of maize in this region. Much of this same region is not 

 equally well suited for the oat crop. The climate is too hot and 

 dry. The oats are much lighter than those produced in more 

 moist and cool regions. Obtaining seed oats from regions 

 where the crop does better may be good business management. 



i E. S. R., Vol. XI, p. 13. 



