PLANT IMPROVEMENT, GOOD SEED 



23 



characters when being harvested. The smaller grains are 

 now receiving the attention of a few experiment stations, 

 and valuable improvements are being made. 



Choosing from the Best. With garden plants such as 

 squashes, melons and tomatoes we should not only choose 

 good specimens from which to save seed, but we should select 

 those specimens from plants that yield large crops of good 

 fruits. This selection can be done more carefully by the 

 grower himself than it can by any wholesale methods where 

 large quantities are carelessly saved from large areas. When 



map*- T 



' 





FIG. 9. Good plump wheat at the left; a poor type of wheat at the right, with, 

 narrow shrivelled kernels. (Experiment Station, Kans.) 



a few desirable individual plants are found, they can be 

 rapidly multiplied. 



The Ear=Row Method. The best ear of corn from the 

 best bearing stalk may be saved for seed and planted in a 

 row by itself. This corn may produce many good stalks 

 with ears as good or better than the one we began with. 

 If the corn of each ear is grown in a separate row we can 

 compare the yields of these rows and select the next seed 

 accordingly. These best ears should be grown in a separate 

 field where the wind cannot carry pollen to it from other 

 cornfields. 



The Hill=Row Method. Potatoes should be grown from 

 those found on the best individual plants. If the potatoes 

 from two plants or hills weigh about the same they may be 

 planted in separate rows. The best row will next furnish 

 the hills for seed-potatoes. 



Bud Selection. Peaches, plums, apples, grapes, and 

 some other fruits are propagated by the use of buds, grafts, 

 3 



