232 AGRICULTURE 



large number of individual plants, one can 

 obtain a pure foundation stock from the 

 best single plant that results from sowing the 

 mixed seed. 



What the characters shall be that the 

 plant breeder fixes his attention on, must 

 depend on circumstances. Even within the 

 limits of a single plant-species, such as wheat, 

 one has many characteristics to choose from, 

 such as yield, freedom from rust, strength 

 and length of straw, presence or absence of 

 awns, colour and hardness of grain, colour 

 of husk, time of maturing, tillering, resistance 

 to weather, and others. In breeding turnips, 

 kohl-rabi, swedes, and mangolds, the object 

 that one principally desires to secure, besides 

 a large yield and good keeping properties, 

 is a high percentage of sugar, because it is 

 chiefly this substance in the crops indicated 

 that determines their feeding properties. 

 On the other hand, what one wants to secure 

 in potatoes, besides yield and freedom from 

 disease, is a high percentage of starch, for 

 on this constituent depends the desirable 

 culinary property of mealiness. On the 

 Continent, where enormous quantities of 

 potatoes are distilled for the production of 

 spirit, a high percentage of starch is even 

 more important than in this country. In 



