SEED BREEDING AND GROWING 115 



each lot are set in blocks and labeled. As they develop 

 the blocks are studied and compared with the original 

 description of the desired type and that of each plant 

 from which seed was saved, and the block selected in 

 which all the plants come the nearest to the desired 

 type, and which show the least variation. From it 

 plants are selected in the same way and to the same 

 type as the previous year. It is better to make selec- 

 tions from such a block than to take the most supe- 

 rior plants from all of the blocks, or from one which 

 produced but one or but a few superlative ones, the 

 rest being variable. 



It is also well to consider the relative importance of 

 different qualities in connection with the degree to 

 which the different lots approach the ideal in these 

 respects. Such a course of selection intelligently and 

 carefully carried out will give, in from three to five 

 years, strains of seed greatly superior and better 

 adapted to one's own conditions than any which it is 

 possible to purchase. A single or but a very few se- 

 lections may be made each year, and the superior 

 value of the seed of the remainder of the seed blocks 

 for use in the field will be far more than the cost of 

 the whole work. 



Growing and saving commercial seed. The ideal 

 way is for the seedsman to grow and select seed as 

 described above and give this stock seed to farmers 

 who plant in fields and cultivate it, much as is rec- 

 ommended for canning, and save seed from the entire 

 crop, the pulp being thrown away. Only a few pick- 

 ings are necessary and the seed is separated by ma- 

 chines worked by horse power at small cost, often not 



