FIXING GOOD TRAITS 15 



In reality, the task of the experimenter who 

 would develop a new and really valuable variety 

 of plum or cherry or apple or spineless cactus, is 

 to be compared not with the task of breeding 

 trotting horses as they are, but rather to the 

 task that would confront the breeder were he 

 to attempt to develop a race of trotting horses 

 which should retain the capacity to trot a mile in 

 less than two minutes, yet at the same time should 

 be big and powerful enough to serve on occasion 

 as draught horses ; should be always of some pre- 

 determined color, say bright bay; and should be 

 as hardy and require as little attention as the 

 toughest broncho. 



It requires no great amount of imagination to 

 see that the task of breeding race horses would 

 be quite different from what it is, even with the 

 few specifications such as these. 



Yet I repeat that the qualities that the plant 

 experimenter usually seeks to combine in his new 

 variety of flower or fruit are at least as varied and 

 as difficult to fix in combination as the qualities 

 just suggested for the supposititious new breed 

 of race horses. 



THE SHASTA ON THE WITNESS STAND 



Let us by way of illustration recall the 

 case of the Shasta daisy which, the reader will 



