RECORDING THE EXPERIMENTS 



been concerned with flowers or fruits that seem 

 to offer opportunities for practical improvement. 



I have usually been seeking, in the experiments 

 to which most time has been given, to modify the 

 plant in such a way as to make it a more beautiful 

 and desirable garden ornament, or to modify a 

 vegetable or fruit in such a way as to make it a 

 more valuable food product. 



Such being the case, it will be understood that, 

 with regard to large series of experiments, I have 

 been concerned with results rather than with 

 methods. As to the latter, it often happens 

 that numberless experiments might be described 

 in substantially the same terms. Once the prin- 

 ciples of hybridization and selection have been 

 clearly mastered, they may be applied to almost 

 every variety of plant life. There are differences 

 in the detail, but the broad outline is the same for 

 each. 



ESSENTIALS VERSUS NON-ESSENTIALS 



It would then be but a waste of time to record 

 over and over details as to these broader outlines 

 of plant experimentation. Where anything of 

 interest has appeared, any point as to which a 

 plant shows differences from its fellows, this has 

 become a matter for recording. 



Moreover, it has been my universal custom to 

 make record of the first hybridizing or crossing 



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