SEEDS AND SEEDLINGS 



81 



wheat while passing through a large field of bearded wheat. He piclted 

 them out, sowed them by themselves, and produced a quantity of wheat now 

 known as the Fultz wheat (known favorably all over the world). By care- 

 ful seed selection, some western farmers have increased their wheat produc- 

 tion by 25 per cent. This, if kept up all over the United States, would mean 

 over $100,000,000 a year 

 in the pockets of the farm- 

 ers 



Boys and girls who have 

 gardens of their own can 

 easily try experiments in 

 selection with almost any 

 garden vegetables. Corn 

 is one of the best plants to 

 experiment with. Gather 

 for planting only the full- 

 est ears and those with the 

 largest kernels. You must 

 also select from the plants 

 those that produce the 

 most ears. Plant such 

 corn grains, carefully se- 

 lected, in a plot by themselves in the garden, and compare their yield with 

 that of the non-selected corn. The accompanying picture shows what can 

 be done by selection. We find that, by what is known as a law of heredity, 

 like produces like; hence the grow^th in the case of the selected grains. 

 Not only does the corn produce ears with a greater number of grains, but 

 it may improve upon the quality of the yield. 



a 



Improvement of com by selection; a, original type; 

 h, improved type developed from it. 



Reference Books 



for the pupil 



Andrews, Botany All the Year Round, pages 103-119. American Book Company. 

 Dana, Plants and Their Children, pages 50-98. American Book Company. 

 Atkinson, First Studies of Plant Life. Chaps. I, II, III, XXV. Gmn and Com- 

 pany. 

 Cornell Nature Study Leaflets. XXVIII, XLII, XLIV. N.Y. Dept. of Agriculture. 



FOR THE TEACHER 



Goodale, Physiological Botany. American Book Company. 



Gray, Structural Botany. American Book Company. 



Leavitt, Outlines of Botany, pages 7-23. American Book Company. 



De CandoUe, Origin of Cultivated Plants. D. Appleton and Company. 



MacDougal, Plant Physiology. Longmans, Green, and Company. 



Year Book, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1901. 



hunter's BIOL. — 6 



