CHAPTER XIX 



PLANT BREEDING 



When the principles of breeding are once understood, their 

 application to special cases, either in plant or animal breeding, 

 is largely a matter of common sense, and no extended discussion 

 of particular operations is necessary. 



It has already been remarked that the breeder needs the 

 utmost possible familiarity with the particular line he hopes to 

 improve. This familiarity he will get largely through experience, 

 but he cannot afford to neglect any source of information that 

 will enlarge his acquaintance with the breed or the variety, for 

 every item of knowledge, will constitute a valuable asset in his 

 business when the time comes, as it surely will, for weighing 

 slight differences in the balance in order to determine questions 

 of selection. This involves detail which only the practical 

 breeder can acquire, and upon which attempted instruction 

 amounts to little more than academic dissertation. Certain 

 special facts and principles, however, run through plant breed- 

 ing, as distinct from animal breeding, and these it is well to 

 clearly understand in advance of actual operations. 



SECTION I ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS 



Advantages in plant breeding. The plant breeder possesses no 

 less than six distinct advantages as compared with the breeder 

 of animals : 



1. Large numbers, giving excellent opportunity for selection. 



2. Rapid reproducing powers, resulting in a marvelous saving 

 of time as compared with that necessarily consumed in the 

 slower process of animal breeding. 



3. The relative cheapness of individuals, making wholesale 

 destruction economically possible. 



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