THE OUTLOOK FOR PLANT BREEDING. 97 



From the above discussion it will have become apparent, the 

 writer hopes, that what is most needed in the field of breeding at 

 the present time is more definite scientific knowledge. While we 

 had supposed that the principles and methods of breeding were 

 pretty well understood fifty years ago, here we now find ourselves 

 absolutely confounded and entirely "at sea" with reference to one 

 of our fundamental principles. 



It may be asked what the practical breeder is going to do while 

 the scientists are occupied in settling the question in dispute re- 

 garding the action of selection, as this will take many years of ex- 

 perimentation. I should answer, that the practical breeder need 

 not worry over the matter in the slightest. He should continue as 

 he has in the past to select the best individuals for seed from each 

 generation and if his work is done carefully and M'ith good judg- 

 ment he will succeed as practical breeders have in the past. Indeed, 

 if we grant that there is no cumulative action of selection, as claimed 

 by DeVries, we would then certainly have to admit another t}^e of 

 artificial breeding which is of considerable importance. Indeed, 

 these two types of breeding and the different aims involved should 

 in any case be kept clearly in mind. 



In one type of selection we are striving to secure new races with 

 more or less markedly different characteristics, while in the other 

 type of breeding we are simply striving to improve an old, well- 

 established race by obtaining the best and most productive strain 

 of that race. The first may be called racial breeding, while the 

 latter may be referred to as strain breeding. The breeder ordinarily 

 may not recognize clearly the distinction between these types of 

 breeding, but there is apparently a different principle involved in 

 each. Probably in the majority of cases the breeder desires to 

 secure new types which may be named as new races and distributed 

 or sold as novelties. If this t}^e of breeding is conducted by an 

 honest breeder nothing is supposed to be obtained unless a tyj^e is 

 produced or found which differs from the ordinary known races by 

 some character of fruit or plant, which enables one to distinguish 

 the new race, and which is reproduced true through the seed as a 

 permanent character of the race. This is what the writer calls 

 racial breeding. This is the t^'j^e of breeding which the seedsman 

 conducts when he searches his trial grounds for new types, sports 



