130 PLANT LIFE ON THE FARM. 



Selection. The improvement of the races of cultivated 

 plants, as previously alluded to, is indicated hy Nature 

 herself. In a wheat field or bean crop no two plants are 

 exactly alike : one is more robust than another, one tillers 

 more than the rest, the ears of one are plumper and fuller, 

 this one grows earlier or later in spring, is therefore hardier 

 or more tender, as the case may be. The careful observer 

 notes these points, and instead of passing them over, 

 endeavours to turn them to account by selecting the plant 

 which shows a tendency to vary, taking seed from it and 

 growing that seed another season. A certain proportion of 

 the offspring is pretty sure to reproduce the desired qualities, 

 probably even to manifest them in an enhanced degree. 

 This leads to further and repeated selection, till, at length, 

 a new race or variety is established. When it is remem- 

 bered what vast results have accrued from the improve- 

 ment of wheat and turnips by selection of this kind, it 

 seems remarkable that further efforts are not made in this 

 direction, and especially by selecting forms which observa- 

 tion would show are specially suited to a particular locality. 

 Thus Kivett's red wheat produced at Rothamsted, on an 

 average of 8 years, 53 bushels of corn per acre, while 

 Hallett's original red, grown under the same conditions, 

 yielded only 36 bushels. 



Change of Seed. This is a practice followed with 

 advantage by both gardener and farmer, for it is found that 

 the crop is improved when seed even of the same variety is 

 obtained from a distance where it has been grown under 

 different conditions of soil and climate. In such cases it is 

 better, where possible, to select seed grown on a poorer soil 

 and under more unfavourable conditions than obtain where it 



