650 PRACTICAL PROBLEMS 



As between the two systems the individual must take his 

 choice. The row system seems to have the advantage of sim- 

 plicity, especially for plants standing in cultivated rows. It is 

 the one most readily understood and most easily managed by 

 the farmer, but either is easy of application. 



The performance record. One of the surprises of plant breed- 

 ing is the very different appearance of the progeny from equally 

 promising individual ears, heads, or other selection. A differ- 

 ence of two to one is not at all uncommon, and not infrequently 

 a row or centgener plot from promising seed proves almost 

 worthless. Hence the necessity of accurate records of entire 

 rows and centgener plots. 1 There is little use in wasting time 

 on inferior material, for the best individual plant from such a 

 fraternity would be but poor stock for breeding purposes. All 

 individual selections for future planting, then, should be made 

 from rows (or centgener plots) with a high average perform- 

 ance record. 



Multiplying plots and fields. After a new strain has proved 

 satisfactory in the nursery row or plot, it must needs be " mul- 

 tiplied " in order to secure a sufficient quantity for sale. It is 

 usually customary to select for at least three generations, as in 

 the production of sugar-beet seed, then multiply by planting 

 out in the open field and selling the total crop for seed. Thus 

 the beet seed of the market is generally two "removes" from 

 the " mother beet," whose selection was made by sugar content. 



Seed production a business. It is fashionable to advise the 

 farmer to produce his own seed. From the standpoint of 

 acclimatization it is good advice, but from any other standpoint 

 it is bad counsel, providing, of course, that plant breeders and 

 seedsmen live up to their responsibilities. 



It is unthinkable that the farmer who is primarily engaged in 

 production can also be a skilled improver in all that he produces. 

 He may breed one or two lines of animals or plants himself, 

 and if he be a breeder by nature and training, and if he have 

 the leisure, that is well ; but by the same token he should 



1 The row of the row system corresponds, of course, to the centgener plot 

 of the plot system, and both include the entire progeny of an "individual 

 selection." 



