62 PLANT-BREEDING 



By these means it was soon found possible to extend the 

 experiments to a previously unknown number, and, at the 

 same time, to obtain far larger deviations from the initial 

 type in a relatively short succession of generations. There- 

 by the breeder was enabled to collect his experience on a 

 scale large enough to yield the material for a full experi- 

 mental criticism of the whole method. The result of this 

 part of the work proved, however, to be not at all satis- 

 fying. 



Of course, the first selection experiments were conducted 

 according to the local needs of the farmers. Among oats 

 the celebrated races of the Probst ei were cultivated, among 

 the peas the variety called Victoria, and among wheat the 

 squarehead sorts. Shortly before, the French breeder, Vil- 

 morin, had produced a new variety of oats to which he had 

 given the name of Ligowo oats. It was tested at Svalof, 

 and its introduction into Swedish agriculture has been one 

 of the best successes of the young station. In the same way, 

 two of the older varieties of barley, the "Plumage" and the 

 "Prentice," were recommended and soon largely distrib- 

 uted. The testing was always performed under strict com- 

 parison with the local varieties, of which, for this reason, a 

 considerable number were kept in culture. 



In the meantime, the deficiencies of the method could not 

 escape observation. All those which were of a purely tech- 

 nical nature could be overcome, and on this side of the 

 problem a high degree of perfection was attained. But there 

 were other weak points which were related to the very foun- 

 dation principles of the method. Among these, the principal 

 one was that the continuous selection of the best specimens in 

 an arbitrary direction did not lead to improvement in all 

 cases. Quite on the contrary, success was rare; so rare, 

 even, that it could almost be looked upon as an exception. 

 The fact itself was not new, since in Germany, also, only 



