LECTURE IV 



SELECTION OF ELEMENTABY SPECIES 



The improvement of cultivated plants must 

 obviously begin with already existing forms. 

 This is true of old cultivated sorts as well as for 

 recent introductions. In either case the start- 

 ing-point is as important as the improvement, 

 or rather the results depend in a far higher de- 

 gree on the adequate choice of the initial ma- 

 terial than on the methodical and careful treat- 

 ment of the chosen varieties. This however, 

 has not always been appreciated as it deserves, 

 nor is its importance at present universally 

 recognized. The method of selecting plants for 

 the improvement of the race was discovered by 

 Louis Vilmorin about the middle of the last 

 century. Before his time selection was ap- 

 plied to domestic animals, but Vilmorin was the 

 first to apply this principle to plants. As is 

 well known, he used this method to increase 

 the amount of sugar in beets and thus to raise 

 their value as forage-crops, with such success, 

 that his plants have since been used for the pro- 



92 



