1903.} BAILEY—MOVEMENT IN PLANT-BREEDING. 67 
the accustomed ideas as to what are the ‘‘ good points” in any 
plant, illustrating the fact that these points are for the most part 
only fanciful, are founded on a@ priort judgments, and are more 
often correlated with mere ‘‘looks’’ than with efficiency. An 
excellent example may be taken from corn. In ‘‘scaling’’ any 
variety of corn, it is customary'to assume that the perfect ear is one 
nearly or quite uniformly cylindrical throughout its length and 
having the tip and butt well covered with kernels. In fact, the old 
idea of a good variety of corn is one that bears such ears. Now 
this ideal is clearly one of perfection and completeness of mere 
form. We have no knowledge that such form has any correlation 
with productiveness, hardiness, drought-resisting qualities, protein 
or starch content—and yet these attributes are the ones that make 
corn worth growing at all. An illustration also may be taken from 
string beans. The ideal pod is considered to be one of which the 
tip-projection is very short and only slightly curved. This appar- 
ently is a question of comeliness, although a short tip may be asso- 
ciated in the popular mind with the absence of ‘‘string’’ in the 
pod ; but we do not know that this character has any relation to 
the efficiency of the bean pod. We are now undergoing much the 
same challenging of ideas respecting the “ points’’ of animals. 
These ‘‘ points,’’ by means of which the animals are ‘‘ scored,’’ are 
in large part merely arbitrary. Now, animals and plants are bred to 
the ideals expressed in these arbitrary points, by choosing for 
parents the individuals that score the highest. When it becomes 
necessary to recast our ‘‘scales of points,’’ the whole course of 
evolution of domestic plants and animals is likely to be changed. 
We are to breed not so much for merely new and striking char- 
acters that will enable us to name, describe and sell a ‘ novelty,’’ 
as to improve the performance along accustomed lines. We do 
not need new varieties of seedling potatoes so much as we need to 
improve, by means of selection, some of the varieties that we 
already possess. We are not to start with a variety, but with a 
plant. It is possible to secure a five per cent. increase in the effi- 
ciency of our field crops; this would mean the annual addition of 
hundreds of millions of dollars to the national gain, 
The purpose, then, of our new plant-breeding is to produce plants 
that are more efficient for specific uses and specific regions. They 
are to be specially adapted. These efficiency-ideals are of six 
general categories : 
