236 AGRICULTURE 



by crossing is completed by selection. It 

 is found that even the crossing at random of 

 different types often gives fairly good results, 

 though greater success is secured by the 

 union of types which display in a marked 

 degree the characteristics that one desires. 

 The best results of all, however, are obtained 

 by careful selection continued throughout 

 some years, until one has obtained a pure 

 stock, followed by the mating of distinct 

 individuals, the completion of the improve- 

 ment and the fixing of the type being 

 subsequently effected by the process of 

 selection and elimination. By starting in 

 this way it is found that there is much less 

 tendency to reversion to undesirable char- 

 acters. 



When one mates two individuals possessing 

 special characters, these characters may be 

 so intimately blended in the progeny that it 

 is impossible to say that the peculiarities of 

 one parent are more conspicuous than those 

 of the other. On the other hand, it very 

 frequently happens that the offspring shows 

 the characters of one parent only, those of 

 the other being latent, although they are 

 capable of displaying themselves in sub- 

 sequent generations. The term applied to 

 this condition of things is prepotency, which 



