1906.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 135 



Sp^ed Selection. 



It is a well-known fact that heavy, well-developed seeds 

 produce more vigorous and more productive plants than 

 lighter seeds of the same variety. This is altogether a rea- 

 sonable statement, because the heavy, well-filled seed has the 

 more perfect embryo, and also has the larger supply of i)lant 

 food on which to support the seedling until the plant is 

 capal)le of getting its nourishment from the air and soil. 



With such crops as wheat, rye and the grasses, the selec- 

 tion of seed is not of so very great importance, because 

 usually an overabundance of seeds is planted, and sufficient 

 seeds develop so that in the natural struggle for existence 

 in their overcrowded state the weaker and less vigorous 

 plants are crowded out and only the more vigorous and 

 healthy plants reach maturity ; and this number which reaches 

 maturity represents the maximum number of plants that can 

 be developed under existing conditions, so that nothing in 

 the crop is lost by this crowding out of the weaker plants. 

 On the other hand, with greenhouse, market gardening and 

 general field or what is known as hoed crops, the conditions 

 are entirely different. In this case each plant has its full 

 share of light, heat and space, and a poor, weakly plant is 

 just so much loss, not only because it occupies a space that 

 ought to produce a Avell-developed plant, but also because a 

 number of undersized, weakly plants in a crop detracts from 

 the market value of the crop as a whole, and also l)ecause 

 weak plants are more subject to disease, and act as a breed- 

 ing-place for diseases that may infect the whole crop ; there- 

 fore, the careful selection of seed becomes an important factor 

 in growing plants. In the case of large seeds, such as corn, 

 this selection is comparatively an easy matter. An ear of 

 corn of the desired type, having kernels of a desirable size 

 and shape and of full development, may be picked out, and 

 by discarding the poor, undeveloped seeds at either end the 

 rest of the seeds may be utilized for planting. Here knowl- 

 edge of the type of seed and judgment only may be relied 

 upon. Beans, peas, etc., may be selected in much the same 

 way, with reasonable assurance that the best results will be 



