414 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



This would be the course: We would plant a large number of seeds in various soils 

 and under varied conditions, choosing the seeds from promising and thrifty plants. When 

 the trees were grown and produced their fruit, we would choose for the second planting the 

 seeds of such fruits as deviated most widely from the parent, both for better and for worse. 

 The next generation the same again choose the most diverse forms for seed; choose the 

 fruit differing as widely as possible from the parent, from each other, and from the ancestral 

 stock. The variations for some generations might be slight, but there would be some varia 

 tion. I have already said that the law of heredity tends to make offspring like the parent, 

 but we choose offspring as unlike the parent as possible, for a few generations, and thus the 

 force of heredity in any one direction is lessened, until at last we would have the tendency to 

 sport so enhanced that the forms produced would be very numerous. Then we would select 

 those best for our use, and propagate them by slips, grafts, buds, or cuttings. 



The two noted horticulturists, Vilmorin, father and son, for more than half a century 

 carried on a series of experiments on this method of breaking up the direction of heredity, 

 and making varieties. When the father died the son continued the work which the elder 

 had begun and the two for a time pursued together. He published the results some twenty- 

 five years ago, and all the more recent and rapid advance in our knowledge of the laws and 

 phases of vegetable growth only confirm their conclusions. Gardeners all agree that in 

 bringing a wild species into cultivation, it usually, at first, for some generations, shows but 

 slight disposition to change or sport ; that after a time sporting begins, and then it rapidly 

 increases. Instances of this among ornamental plants, like the dahlia, chrysanthemum, etc., 

 are too numerous and well-known among gardeners to need more reference here. 



With some Old- World fruits the process has gone on so long, and so many influences 

 have been at work, that now it is the rule that the fruit of the seedling should be unlike the 

 parent, and all the various and choice varieties of apples we now have are the selections of 

 countless thousands of varieties which have arisen in the various lands where apples have 

 been grown, and during the long ages apples have been cultivated. Time has been an essen 

 tial factor in this work; for ages the number of varieties were few compared with what we 

 now know; we are now reaping the rich harvest which our race has been sowing all these 

 many centuries.&quot; 



The difficulties in forming a new breed will hence be seen, as these varieties will some 

 times suddenly appear after breeding true for several generations. It is not advisable to 

 attempt to form a new breed out of incongruous materials that may happen to be at hand, 

 for it would be sure to result in failure. It will be far better to select from breeds already 

 formed, according to the use for which they were intended, than to attempt to establish a new 

 one, that perhaps after fifty or a hundred years will be no better, if as good, as some breeds we 

 now have, that are the result of many generations of careful breeding. In establishing a breed 

 the main principle which breeders have adhered to, is to always select the best individuals in 

 each generation for breeding purposes. In the art of breeding there are recognized three 

 principles or laws, viz.: heredity, variability, and selection; the first two relate to the quali 

 ties of the animals which render the art practicable, and the last to the art of man. What 

 ever the breed or its characteristics, good feeding, good shelter, and judicious management 

 generally, combined with careful selection, will do much towards maintaining and perfecting 

 the desirable qualities. Lack of proper care and injudicious selection will soon destroy the 

 effects of previous good management and careful breeding. &quot; Bad feeding will soon mar 

 good breeding,&quot; is an old maxim that should be more generally understood by farmers, and 

 their practice modified accordingly. No matter how good the animal may be, in itself, or 

 how carefully its ancestors have been bred for previous generations, the pedigree will soon 

 be of little avail, if it is stunted in growth by being kept in a half-starved condition, and 

 permitted to shift for itself generally. Good feeding should always be combined with good 

 breeding in order to attain the best results. 



