CANTALOUPE CULTURE AND PEDIGREED CANTALOUPE SEED. 



of a different variety name. By this, one should not infer, that it makes 

 little difference what strain is planted. In the breeding of livestock, an 

 animal may be a Shorthorn or a Jersey, yet be absolutely worthless to 

 head a herd; it is the question of the individual merit of the animal, and 

 so with the cantaloupe; there must be a system of seed selection which 

 recognizes the individual plan as the unit of selection, to give value to the 

 seed, and not merely a name applied to attract the buyer. 



Cantaloupe seed cannot be judged by its appearance, for fine looking 

 seed can be saved from worthless stock, nor is the price paid for the seed 

 a sufficient test of its value, for great quantities of seed are bought from 

 cull piles and unmarketable cantaloupes at an insignificant price at first, 

 but after passing through the hands of several seed jobbers, it gradually 

 assumes a price that would seem to warrant it being good seed, by the 

 grower who does not suspect its true character until a seasons' labor may 

 have been lost. 



The seed jobber can seldom reach the standard advertised until the 

 seed breeder and the seed grower stands back of him. Contract seed, 

 mis-labeled seed, substituted orders, renamed varieties and extravagant 

 claims have shaken the confidence of many growers; a competent seed 

 breeder should be able to guarantee the seed he produces as to variety, 

 purity and general qualities, and the seed firm that deserves the confi- 

 dence of growers must deal in reliable seed all the time. 



There has been a great awakening on the subject of improved seed 

 selection for all crops and the cantaloupe grower who does not keep pace 

 with the advance of knowledge in this line, must expect to fall short in 

 his profits. Seed breeding means more than the selection of seed from 

 an average crop, that would tend only to produce average results. 



The same laws that govern the breeding of animals also control the 

 improvement of plants. Any fair minded man will acknowledge that 

 thoroughbred animals are more profitable than scrubs, or even average 

 stock, and the same is true of pedigreed plants. But we must get the 

 true conception of seed selection, not the idea of the uninformed farmer 

 who, with his wife spent their evenings for many days, selecting seed 

 corn from a lot of shelled corn that he had purchased for feed. And the 

 man, who selects his cantaloupe seed at the packing shed is almost as far 

 wrong, for the plant that produced the seed has not been considered. 



Scientific plant breeding and seed selection are based on two funda- 

 mental factors that cause variations in plants, Environment and Heredity. 

 The ever changing conditions of soil and climate, and cultural care will 

 effect the qualities of plants, and the different combinations of these in- 

 fluences may produce from the same seed, under different conditions very 

 contrasting results, it may be ideal, or undesirable; for this reason a 

 crop producing fine specimens under favorable conditions does not prove 

 conclusively that the crop should be saved for seed, for the weak heredity 

 that may be present, under more adverse conditions, might disclose the 

 serious defects. Hereditary tendencies cannot be determined before hand 

 by the appearance of the seed, nor from the perfect specimens from which 

 it may have been saved. 



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