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(Fig. 3) . It is upon this food material, whether stored in the 

 endosperm or in the embryo, that the young plant must live 

 until it establishes soil connections and exposes green leaves 

 to the light and air. It is this period of dependence upon 

 stored food that is called germination. 



26. Seed selection. The proper handling of seeds is no 

 less important than the proper tilling of the soil. The char- 

 acter of seeds must be investigated before planting, for the 

 character of the crop will depend upon a proper seed selection. 



FIG. 3. Section of bean, showing the embryo (chiefly the fleshy cotyledons) filling 

 all the space within the testa. 



Not very many years ago it was thought that any kind of 

 seed is good enough to plant, and so in the case of cereals 

 the best seeds were used for food, and the poorer seeds were 

 saved for planting. In the case of plants whose seeds are 

 not used for food, no attention was paid to the character of 

 the plant whose seeds were used for planting. 



It is now recognized, however, that seed selection is of the 

 very first importance. A seed produces a plant that very 

 closely resembles the parent plant, and if the parent plant is 

 a poor specimen and has produced poor seed, its progeny 

 cannot be expected to do any better. So important is seed 

 selection, therefore, that it has developed a great industry, 

 and the business of seed firms is to select seed, to improve it 



