PLANT BREEDING 45 



dencies, thus producing a state of perturbation 

 or partial antagonism by which these tendencies 

 are, in later generations, dissociated and recom- 

 bined in new proportions, which gives the breeder 

 a wider field for selection; but this opens a much 

 more difficult one — the selection and fixing of 

 the desired new types from the mass of hetero- 

 geneous tendencies produced, for, by crossing, 

 bad traits as well as good are always brought 

 forth. The results now secured by the breeder 

 will be in proportion to the accuracy and inten- 

 sity of selection and the length of time they are 

 applied. By these means the best of fruits, 

 grains, nuts, and flowers are capable of still 

 further improvements in ways which to the 

 thoughtless often seem unnecessary, irrelevant, 

 or impossible. 



When we capture and domesticate .the various 

 plants, the life forces are relieved from many of 

 the hardships of an unprotected wild condition 

 and have more leisure, so to speak, or in other 

 words, more surplus force, to be guided by the 

 hand of man under new environments into all 

 the useful and beautiful new forms which are 

 constantly appearing under cultivation, crossing, 

 and selection. Some plants are very much more 

 pliable than others, as the breeder soon learns. 

 Plants having numerous representatives in 



