Theory and Practice in Breeding. 175 



or between Italians and Germans, are almost number- 

 less. 



A new hybrid, especially if of an open pollenated 

 plant species or an animal species, is usually very unsta- 

 ble and the internal war for supremacy continues. The 

 dominants formed up into groups, held together by 

 their affinities, in competition with eager atavic ele- 

 ments, ever under the influence of environment and the 

 readjusting relationships of atavic as well as dominant 

 characteristics, are here unstable, Natural or arti- 

 ficial selection is required to discard the chaff and se- 

 lect the grain. We can enforce uniformity, if for gen- 

 eration after generation we can select for one purpose 

 especially if we can find the rare individuals in which 

 the desirable group of dominants hold tenaciously to- 

 gether in a stable way. Soon the dominants in the new 

 combination become strongly affiliated ; the atavics are 

 held down with a hand strengthened by time and the 

 fraternity group becomes a stable family, breed or 

 species. There is great variation in the persistency 

 of variation among the individuals, from which var- 

 ieties are formed by close pollenation, as in wheat or 

 barley, and especially in the interbreeding groups of 

 open pollenated plants or animals. Some stocks of 

 plants or animals will settle down to uniformity in a 

 short time, possibly with a certain select class of domi- 

 nants in the ascendency. In other cases variation con- 

 tinues with persistency, even where the selection is 

 under systematic guidance by man. 



The object of breeding is to obtain the best founda- 

 tion blood lines and from them secure by simple selec- 

 tion or by hybridizing followed by selection of fraternity 

 groups which will so combine the better qualities as 

 dominants into stable economic units of enlarged value 

 per plant or per acre or per animal or per herd, or 

 through hybridizing to increase in value or quality, 

 some of the existing characteristics, or by combination 

 create new characters of larger value and then collect 



