350 PLANT AND ANIMAL BREEDING 



dahlia will give rise to large double blossoms colored red. If he 

 plants the seeds, however, he will probably find outcroppings of 

 the plant's ancestry in the way of small flowers, some single rather 

 than double, some with white petals, and so on. The potato at 

 present rarely bears seeds. When such seeds appear and are 

 planted, different kinds of potato plants may result. Many of 

 these plants may bear potatoes that are small, irregular in shape, 

 and low in food content. They closely resemble their wild an- 

 cestors. Therefore, the potato is propagated vegetatively by 

 using parts of the tuber containing the " eyes." Tomatoes were 

 formerly small, tasteless, and full of seeds. But through selec- 

 tion and cultivation, many splendid varieties have been developed, 

 within the last generation. Other details that have been brought 

 out through breeding are : increased egg laying in hens, increased 

 milk supply from cows, and increased starch and protein produc- 

 tion in corn. 



Improved quality. The southeastern region of the state of 

 Washington was an excellent locality for growing wheat. But 

 the climate is so severe that every three or four years, the entire 

 crop was killed by frost. The problem of producing a hardy 

 variety of wheat was turned over to Mr. Spillman of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture. He selected as a beginning, 

 the Little Club wheat, named for the short, clublike appearance 

 of the head. It was desirable because it had a stem strong enough 

 to resist storms and a head that remained closed long after ripen- 

 ing. Thus the ripe grain was protected and was not likely to be 

 lost before harvesting. This species was crossed with other varie- 

 ties, including a hardy winter variety that would resist frosts. 

 After ten years of careful selection and propagation, an improved 

 frost-resistant variety of Club Wheat was obtained, that is now 

 grown in the extreme Northwest. Winter character was found 

 to be dominant over spring character and the club head to domi- 

 nate over long head. 



