154 THE SURVIVAL OP THE UNLIKE. [v. 



knew that plants mix by. crossing. He had also learned 

 that the character of the entire plant is more important, 

 when choosing seed -parents, than that of the particular 

 fruit from which the seed is taken. "The common 

 method of saving seed corn, by taking the ears from the 

 crib or heap, is attended with two disfid vantages, one is, 

 the taking the largest ears, which have generally grown 

 but one on a stalk. This lessens the production; the 

 other is, taking ears which have ripened at different 

 times, which causes the production to do the same." 

 A year or two ago I wrote: "The practice of selecting 

 large ears from a bin of corn, or large melons from 

 the grocer's wagon, is much less efficient in producing 

 large products the following season than the prac- 

 tice of going into the fields and selecting the most uni- 

 formly large -fruited parents would be." This re- 

 mark was drawn from general experien(!e and observa- 

 tion, I had not then read Cooper. I now find that my 

 advice is a hundred years behind time! This is not the 

 only instance in which I seem to have copied Cooper. I 

 have said several times that the seeds of the southern 

 watermelons are almost worthless for the north because 

 they give late fruits, but that the variety may even- 

 tually be fitted to our (conditions by a constant selec- 

 tion of seeds from the earliest plants. "A striking 

 instance of plants being naturalized," writes Cooper, 

 happened by Colonel Matlack sending some water 

 melon seed from Georgia, which, he informed me by 

 letter, were of superior quality. Knowing that seed from 

 vegetables which had grown in more southern climates, 

 required a longer summer than what grew here, I gave 

 them the most favourable situation, and used glasses to 

 bring them forward, yet very few ripened to perfection; 



