ELEMENTS OF A WISE CHOICE 459 



greatest effort should be made to preserve or to 

 intensify those desirable attributes which are charac- 

 teristics of the wild species. Such attributes are 

 likely to be more virile and permanent than similar 

 ones which originate under domestication, because they 

 have been impressed upon the species for a longer 

 period of time. The intending plant -breeder can save 

 himself much time and strength by throwing his 

 efforts into line with the direction of evolution of 

 the species rather than against it. He cannot afford 

 even to be indifferent to the natural capabilities of 

 the type. For example, other things being equal, the 

 domesticator will generally have better results in breed- 

 ing plants for a dry region by selecting those types 

 which naturally grow in such regions. The adapting 

 of the grape to limestone soils can no doubt be 

 quicker accomplished by endeavoring to breed up 

 acceptable varieties from Vitis Berlandieri, which 

 thrives in these lands, than by attempting to over- 

 come the pronounced antipathies of the Vitis Labrusca 

 types to such soils. The first attempt, in impressing 

 new fruit -species into cultivation, should be to secure 

 a type which will thrive in the given region ; the pro- 

 duction of ameliorated varieties is a secondary and 

 usually much simpler matter. The first consideration 

 in breeding plums for the dry plains regions, for 

 example, is to secure a type which will endure the 

 climate, the long droughts, the severe winters, the 

 hot summers. This fundamental desideratum may be 

 expected to be found in the indigenous plums, rather 

 than in the domesticated types. This is saying that 

 one of the most promising lines of effort in the im- 

 provement of the native fruits is to work with the 



