222 Plant-Breeding 



found that almost any character of a plant may be either 

 intensified or lessened within certain limits. This is man's 

 nearest approach to the Creator in his control over the 

 physical forms of life, and it is great and potent in pro- 

 portion as it sets for itself correct ideals in the beginning 

 and adheres to them until the end. 



For examples of improvement by selection see Figs. 49- 

 56, that represent familiar results. 



RULES FOB BREEDING PLANTS 



When beginning this selection or breeding for an ideal, 

 it is important that impossible or contradictory results be 

 avoided. Some of the cautions and suggestions that 

 need to be considered are these : 



1. Avoid striving after features that are antagonistic 

 or foreign to the species or genus with which you are 

 working. Every group of plants has become endowed 

 with certain characters or lines of development, and the 

 cultivator will secure quicker and surer results if he works 

 along the same lines, rather than attempt to thwart them. 

 Nature gives the hint : let man follow it out, rather than 

 to endeavor to create new types of characters. Consider 

 some of the solanaceous plants for examples. There 

 are certain types of the genus Solanum which have a 

 natural habit of tuber-bearing, as the potato. Such 

 species should be bred for tubers and not for fruits. There 

 are other Solanums, however, as the egg-plants and the 

 pepinoes, which naturally vary or develop in the direc- 

 tion of fruit-bearing, and these should be bred for fruits 

 and not for tubers ; and the same should be true in the 

 related genera of tomatoes, red peppers, and physalis. 



