THE CHERRY 131 



gather the fruit and save the seed and in due 

 course plant it and nurture the seedlings by 

 methods hitherto fully explained. 



So when a year and a half has passed from the 

 inauguration of our experiment we have a row of 

 hybrid seedlings ready for grafting. 



The one thought that is uppermost in our 

 mind, for purposes of the present exposition, is 

 that of securing a plant that will bear fruit of 

 large size. Now we have learned that there are 

 certain correlations of parts that will enable the 

 plant experimenter to predict, from the appear- 

 ance of the seedling, a good many things about 

 the quality of the fruit it will subsequently bear. 

 Utilizing this knowledge, we pass along the row 

 of seedlings and select from among the thousand 

 or five thousand individuals the ten or twelve that 

 seem to us to give greatest promise. Nor at this 

 particular stage of the development is the selec- 

 tion very difficult, for the first generation hybrids 

 usually show no very great tendency to variation. 

 That tendency is reveale % d in subsequent genera- 

 tions, as we have seen. 



In fact, as a moment's reflection will tell us, 

 the seedlings before us are really all of one qual- 

 ity as regards the particular characteristic of 

 their innate tendency to bear large or small fruit, 

 One of their parents bore large fruit; the other 



