812 Fluctuations 



in better conditions of fertility than was 

 possible for the fields at large. A con- 

 tinued study of the qualities and exigencies of 

 the elite plants accompanied this selection, 

 and gave the means of gradually increasing the 

 standard. Eesistance against disease was ob- 

 served and other qualities were ameliorated in 

 the same manner. Mr. Rimpau repeatedly told 

 me that he was most anxious not to overlook any 

 single character, because he feared that if any 

 of them might become selected in the wrong 

 way, perchance unconsciously, the whole strain 

 might suffer to such a degree as to make all the 

 other ameliorations quite useless. With this 

 purpose the number of plants per acre was 

 kept nearly the same as those in the fields, 

 and the size of the culture was large enough 

 every year to include the best kernels of quite a 

 niunber of heads. These were never separated, 

 and exact individual pedigrees were not in- 

 cluded in the plan. This mixture seemed to 

 have the advantage of keeping up an average 

 value of the larger number of the characters, 

 which either from their nature or from their 

 apparent unimportance had necessarily to be 

 neglected. 



After ten years of continuous labor, the rye 

 of Rimpau caught the attention of his neigh- 

 bors, being manifestly better than that of ordi- 



