LUTHER BURBANK 



If the three or four different qualities, improve- 

 ment of which is desired, are not combined to best 

 advantage in any single individual, then it is neces- 

 sary to select an individual for each quality, and 

 to carry forward three or four lines of experiment 

 at the same time. 



It will be recalled that in developing a special 

 variety of small sweet canning pea, with the qual- 

 ities of uniform ripening, of small seed, and of 

 seeds of uniform number and equal size in the 

 pod, I was enabled to find these qualities exhibited 

 in such combination that the experiment went for- 

 ward rapidly, so that in the course of six genera- 

 tions I had developed precisely the variety of pea 

 that was desired. 



But it will also be recalled that half a dozen 

 other lines of experiment were carried forward 

 at the same time, using the same group of peas, 

 that led finally to the production of as many quite 

 different varieties, characterized by large size of 

 seed, by lentil-shaped seeds, and the like. And 

 these secondary experiments were carried out 

 without in any way interfering with the primary 

 one. It was merely that, in searching among the 

 different vines, I could not fail to notice individ- 

 ual plants that showed interesting characteristics, 

 and nothing more was required than to mark these 

 differently from the others and save their se^ed. 



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