How Domestic Varieties Originate 261 



quirements very well. Another seedsman would like a 

 round-podded, stringless, green-podded bean. This same 

 man produced it, and I went into a field of fifteen acres 

 of it, where it was growing for seed, and the most fas- 

 tidious person could not have asked for a closer approach 

 to the ideal which the dealer had set before him some 

 four or five years before. 



How is all this done ? It looks simple enough. The 

 ideal is established first of all. The breeder revolves it 

 in his mind, and eliminates all the impracticable and con- 

 tradictory elements of it. Then he goes carefully and 

 critically through his bean fields, particularly through 

 those varieties most like the desired kind, and marks 

 those plants which most nearly approach his ideal. The 

 seeds of these are carefully saved, and they are planted 

 in an isolated position. If he finds no promising variations 

 among his plantations, then he must start off the varia- 

 tion in some other way. This is usually done by crossing 

 those varieties which are most like the proposed kind. 

 He has got a start ; but now the care and skill begin. 

 Year by year he selects just those plants which please 

 him best and which he judges, from experience, will most 

 surely carry their features over to the offspring. He 

 starts with one plant; the next year he may have only 

 two. If he has ten or twenty good ones, then the task 

 is easy, for the variety has elements of permanence 

 that is, of hereditability in it. But he may have 

 no plants the second year. In that case, he begins again ; 

 for if the ideal is true, it can be attained. This par- 

 ticular bean-breeder upon whom many of our best seeds- 

 men rely for new varieties, says that he has discarded 



