CHAPTER XL 



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CROSS BREEDING AND HYBRIDIZING OF WHEAT. 



In Chapter IX a statement was made of the methods 

 used in measuring the breeding power or "projected 

 efficiency" of single mother plants of wheat. It can 

 readily be seen that the value of varieties of wheat, 

 which it is possible to make from any original variety 

 adopted as a foundation stock, is determined by the pe- 

 culiar breeding power or value of the best plants with- 

 in that foundation stock. As a stream cannot rise above 

 its source; so varieties better than the blood of the best 

 plants in the original variety cannot be made. Tht 

 plan outlined has proved well -adapted for cheaply elim- 

 inating all but the best and thus securing the blood of 

 the best plants. Methods have been found also of 

 making extended field, laboratory^ and baking tests of 

 these new varieties originated by selection. Business 

 methods have also been devised for effectively placing 

 quantities of these new varieties on the market under 

 statistical pedigrees, which show their intrinsic values 

 in a way that will induce farmers to use them, and seed 

 growers to grow them in large quantities for sale, thus 

 rapidly bringing about their wide and general use, sup- 

 planting kinds of less value. 



The question now arises, are there not means of 

 securing mother plants of still higher breeding value 

 than those originally existing within a given variety 

 of wheat ? Cross-breeding and hybridizing have 

 proved of greatest value in this connection. It seems a 

 matter of convenience hereafter to use the term 

 "hybridizing" in a more liberal sense than is the general 

 custom, that one term may be used to cover the cross- 

 ing of varieties as well as of species. In a future 

 article, before taking up the subject of the breeding 



