30 



above plant was selected and its seeds sown the following year when the 

 progeny still seemed promising. In 1902, seed from the preceding year's 

 crop was sown on a larger plot when not a single "three-kernelled" plant 

 was to be found and the attempt was therefore abandoned. 



In 1900 an oat plant possessing a particularly stiff upright panicle was 

 found in a sort (No. 0955) having a panicle which was weak, drooping and 

 presumably of quite an inferior type. This stiff -panicled individual was 

 selected and its seed sown in a small pedigree plot in 1901, but instead 

 of producing all stiff-panicled plants it produced a weak-panicled progeny 

 of quite the same type as the parent sort. 



Individual winter wheat plants which survived certain unfavorable 

 winters and springs to a marked degree, have been selected from pedigree 

 cultures which, as a whole, had suffered more or less severely. On propaga- 

 tion it has been found that these do not mark any permanent improvement in 

 hardiness over the mother sort. They have thrived under adverse conditions 

 simply because of influences which were purely external (35 p. 176). 

 In composite races (mixed varieties) the case is naturally different as 

 here there may be found a ' collection ' of distinct strains some of which may 

 be normally hardier than others. In such cases the fittest will survive and 

 in this way render the variety more hardy. 



Many other examples might be cited to show the apparent futility of 

 seeking to find at least within the first generation pedigree plots of normally 

 self -fertilizing species, individual plants which are capable of producing 

 better progeny than others within the same plot, but probably those aleady 

 given will suffice. It should be noted in passing however, that repeated 

 selections from larger cultures even of pedigree sorts are still made in the case 

 of wheat, but such selection is not based upon the Darwinian idea of variation 

 as we shall see later. 



Necessity of Following the discovery of the composite nature of common varieties 



working with and the consequent introduction of the pedigree culture system, it was soon 



an extensive seen that a very extensive material must be worked with in order that the 



material. chances of isolating superior individuals might be as great as possible. There 



were therefore collected hundreds of apparently distinct botanical forms, each 



of which was sown on a separate plot. In making this collection of forms 



little attention was paid at first to the standing of the variety in which they 



were found. Samples of seed were also collected at exhibitions and by 



correspondence with interested farmers and others while members of the 



staff took advantage of journeys into the country to collect promising looking 



plants from fields. 



Early ideas As a means of increasing the tendency to the production of " new spon- 



re artificial taneous variations" (34 p. 56) according to the old idea as expressed by 



hybridization Nageli, artificial crossing was introduced about 1893. In the absence of 



any guiding principle such as is now available, this work did not occupy an 



important place but was regarded as of quite secondary consideration and 



almost wholly of theoretical interest. Indeed it was believed that the old 



races contained a sufficiently rich material to meet practically all demands. 



