PEAS AND BEANS 133 



In attempting to meet the specifications, I 

 followed the methods of rigid and systematic 

 selection. There was no occasion for cross-fer- 

 tilization, as the peas were of good quality, and 

 showed enough variation as to all of the desired 

 characteristics to offer material for selection. 



My plan was to pick out in successive genera- 

 tions the vine that came nearest to meeting specifi- 

 cations as to number of pods, uniformity of ripen- 

 ing, and small size as well as uniform size of the 

 peas themselves. 



It was necessary, as in other experiments of a 

 similar kind, to watch the individual plants, 

 selecting the very best individual plants, and 

 harvesting them by themselves, counting the 

 pods and counting the peas, and making careful 

 record of results. 



Fortunately it is possible with the pea to raise 

 two crops in a season. Thus I was enabled to 

 progress very much more rapidly than otherwise 

 could have hoped to do. We could do two years' 

 work in one. 



So we were able to deal with six generations 

 of peas in three years. And yet by that time the 

 undesirable qualities had been so systematically 

 excluded and desirable ones so persistently 

 sought for that the educated pea vines fulfilled 

 the specifications exactly. 



