42 PLANT-BREEDING 



chosen for the sowing of the next generation, and this was 

 the best on account of its having not only the largest number 

 of kernels, but also the biggest and best formed ones of them 

 all. Repeatedly Hallett has insisted upon the immense 

 amount of work which this kind of selection yearly required. 

 This is the more curious since at the present time hardly 

 anybody attributes much importance to a choice of the best 

 seeds on a given individual, provided only that small or un- 

 healthy kernels are sufficiently excluded. 



For Hallett, on the contrary, the choice of the one best 

 kernel on the whole plant was the real aim in his selection. 

 He tried all means for comparing the individual kernels of 

 his one superior ear with one another and for finding out 

 the best one. He made investigations embracing, on one 

 side, their visible marks, and on the other their places on the 

 ear, those in the middle part being in the main the better 

 ones. But he could not discover distinct laws and so had 

 to give up the whole system. Leaving aside all comparison 

 of the kernels of his chosen head, he resolved to sow them 

 all and to delay their study until the next generation. In 

 this he repeated his testing in the manner described and 

 judging the kernels from the plants they had produced, he 

 was enabled to discern among them the one by means of 

 which he wished to continue his race. 



To this method of selecting each year the best kernel on 

 the best ear of the best plant, Hallett has given the name 

 of pedigree-culture. Its essential feature is the repeated 

 selection. Some of his varieties were given to the trade 

 under the names of pedigree wheats and pedigree oats. Of 

 the latter, his "pedigree white Canadian oats" and his 

 ''pedigree black Tartarian oats" may here be mentioned. 

 Both were introduced in the year 1862. He claimed that 

 his gradual amelioration gave better varieties than the princi- 

 ple of the isolation of single plants. This may be seen by 



