36 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



tion of variation may be, the scientific wheat grower utilizes 

 the process in two different ways, by the simple process of se- 

 lection, or by the compound process of selection, hybridization 

 and selection. 



Selection is an unfailing means for the modification of form 

 and tendency in organic life. It augments the power of varia- 

 tion by successively selecting the most marked variations in 

 any direction. While conscious selection is a modern process 

 which has attained commercial importance at a comparatively 

 recent date, there is no doubt of selection having been one of 

 the most powerful influences from the very first in developing 

 wheat, although men were not aware of its operation. What- 

 ever protection or cultivation early man bestowed upon the 

 cereal plants was naturally bestowed upon the grasses and 

 wheats which produced the most food in return, and not upon 

 those comparatively less important as food. The very essence 

 of the importance attached to wheat has always been its food 

 yielding quality. It is a perfectly sound inference that those 

 varieties of wheat which had this quality in the highest de- 

 gree had an advantage which aided them to survive other va- 

 rieties. This, however, is only the operation of the prime 

 factor of selection, or, as Darwin calls it, the "law of the 

 preservation of the favorable individual differences and varia- 

 tions, and the destruction of those which are injurious." 



Selection and cultivation, in the ordinary sense, were the 

 processes of domestication. After domestication, varieties con- 

 tinue to be propagated in a similar manner. The results have 

 been attained none the less advantageously and certainly on 

 account of the fact that man was unconsciously the selecting 

 agent. To this force of artificial selection was added that of 

 natural selection in early development, which was a result of 

 the coincidence that the quality of wheat as a human food and 

 the reproductive functions of the plant were both united in its 

 seed. The plant producing the greatest number of seeds was 

 most apt to survive, not only because man was most likely to 

 give it his fostering care, but also because of the increased 

 chances of reproduction. In wheat artificially sown, care 

 must be exercised lest this force of natural selection operate 

 disadvantageously, for fewer seeds are no longer a disadvantage 

 in reproduction. If for any reason, such as being brought to a. 



