30 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



pollen on the tassel. The chances then are that the seed taken from the 

 fine stalk will have been crossed by the inferior ones, and will take more of 

 their character than its own. Therefore, in saving seed corn, we should make 

 sure that none of the barren stalks are allowed to make tassels and thus to 

 interfere with the process of seed improvement. I once undertook the im- 

 provement of my tomatoes. I found one plant in the field which showed 

 remarkable productiveness and fine, smooth fruit. It was surrounded by 

 rough and undesirable plants. If I had taken the seed from this plant it 

 would have been crossed by inferior kinds. Therefore I made cuttings from 

 it late in the fall and potted them, and placed them in the greenhouse. They 

 were there cared for as other greenhouse plants are, and more cuttings were 

 made late in winter. By spring time I had plants enough to set a considerable 

 area and all of the same identical habit, and could now save the seed with 

 some certainty of getting plants more nearly like the original than if I had 

 taken seed at first. These seeds were sown the following year and another 

 selection made and carried over from cuttings, and in a few years I had a 

 tomato which I have never seen excelled. Unfortunately, after years of effort 

 the stock was lost in fire. I give this as a sample of what may be done by in- 

 telligent effort with almost any of our garden vegetables and flowers. There 

 is no branch of cropping either in field or garden, more interesting and 

 profitable than the improvement of cultivated varieties. Form in mind the 

 ideal plant which you wish to produce and annually select seed from plants 

 that come nearest to your ideal plant. Never select for a single character 

 in the plant. If you select simply for big ears of corn you may get the big 

 ears along with other undesirable characters. If you select for a big tomato, 

 you will get that, but it may be unproductive and of bad shape. In plant 

 breeding we must' take into consideration all the characters we wish to per- 

 petuate in the plant, and try to breed out all the bad features by avoiding 

 them. The improved tomato of today is the result of long-continued 

 crossing and selection, for the purpose of getting the crooked, but solid and 

 meaty Mexican tomato inside the smooth skin of the old smooth, but hollow 

 tomato. It is always trying to get out, apparently, and hence constant 

 selection is needed to keep a variety near the type. While we can, to a certain 

 extent, get plants into the habit of coming true to seed it requires constant 

 watchfulness to keep them so, for there is always a tendency to break away 

 from the inherited form and to sport into others. A break of this sort may 

 be an advantage and a starting point for a new variety found. I have recently 

 had my attention called to a curious instance of this. A gentleman has a tree 

 of the old Blood peach, which has for years borne the same peach, and this 

 peach is of such a fixed type that it commonly comes true when raised from 



