LUTHER BURBANK 



of predicted quality, as Mr. Burbank did in the 

 case of the canning peas, or you may, as it were, 

 follow where the peas lead you, and let the po- 

 tentialities of the different varieties reveal them- 

 selves as you proceed. 



SELECTION WITHOUT CEOSSING 



This important point must be borne in mind, 

 however and it applies not merely to peas but to 

 all other plants. In making your selection, it is 

 necessary to consider the total product of a given 

 plant, not merely an individual fruit. A single 

 pod of peas may be of exceptional size because it 

 chanced that it is the only pod on a vine, or be- 

 cause some other accidental circumstance favored 

 it. The progeny of these peas will not necessarily 

 tend to produce a race of large peas. But if you 

 find a vine that produces pods that are uniformly 

 of large size, this will indicate that the tendency 

 to produce peas of this character is in the heredity 

 or germ-plasm of this particular vine, and will 

 tend to be transmitted. 



It should be observed that in producing these 

 new varieties of peas Mr. Burbank worked purely 

 by selection, without finding it necessary to hy- 

 bridize the plants to produce new tendencies to 

 variation. 



The plants tended to vary sufficiently to give 

 him material for his experiments, and such is 

 found to be the case with a very large number of 

 plants in the yegetable garden. 



[112] 



