V 



CHAPTER V. 



INHERITANCE OF CHARACTERS AND IMPROVEMENT BY 

 BREEDING. 



'Tis often seen adoption strives with nature, and choice breeds a native 

 slip to us from foreign seeds. 



— Shakespeare. 



And he gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn 

 ... to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve 

 better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole 

 race of politicians put together. 



— Gulliver's Travels. 



Necessity for Improvement. 



CHAP. 97. The Object of "Breeding" . — Plant breeding is the 



application to crops of the principles applied in improving 

 breeds of live stock. No breed of domesticated animals or 

 plants is perfect in all respects ; each one has its good and its 

 weak points. There are therefore two primary objects which 

 the breeder keeps in view in order to produce satisfactory 

 results : (a) maintenance of quality and type, by the elimination 

 of the unfit and untrue to type ; (b) improvement of the type 

 by the substitution of desirable for undesirable characters. 



To allow the poor types in a herd or crop to propagate 

 their kind always results in race deterioration. To allow only 

 the strongest and best to mate and propagate means, on the 

 other hand, race maintenance and also, within certain limits, 

 race improvement. 



" In the herd of cattle to destroy the strongest bulls, the 

 fairest cows, the most promising calves, is to allow those not 

 strong, nor fair nor promising, to become the parents of the 

 coming herd. Under this influence the herd will deteriorate, 

 although the individuals of the inferior herd are no worse than 

 their own actual parents. Such a process is called race- 



126 



