ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES. 107 



not owing so much to the seedling which was first 

 chosen as it was to the subsequent selections faithfully 

 persisted in. 



Some Modern Examples of Plant Improvement 

 by Selection. All of the present fine races of tomato 

 were produced by A. W. Livingston through selection. 

 The first variety produced (introduced in 1870) which 

 he named the Paragon, was discovered by him in a 

 field of large red tomato, a variety of all sorts of shapes 

 and sizes, except that it was not smooth. Livingston 

 observed that this plant was unlike any other in the 

 lot. It had distinct characteristics, such as heavy 

 foliage, great vigor and prolificness, with uniformity of 

 shape, and smoothness of the fruit. But while it had 

 all of these desirable qualities, the fruit was not any 

 larger than the kind used for preserving, and was there- 

 fore too small to be of general market value. 



Basing his judgment on the principle of unity of the 

 character of the individual, he selected this plant and 

 saved its seed. Selections were made from the seed- 

 lings, and this process of selecting and saving seed only 

 from the plant which showed an increase in the size of 

 the fruit, in addition to its characteristics, was kept up 

 carefully for five years. By the end of that time he 

 had succeeded in enlarging the size of the fruit con- 

 siderably, and it was then considered worthy of intro- 

 duction. 



This was Livingston's first attempt at plant-breeding, 

 and his success with it led him to devote his attention 

 to improving the tomato family generally. In the 

 course of twenty or more subsequent years, he pro- 

 duced through selection a score or more of new types 

 of tomato, comprising the best of what are now in 

 cultivation. 



