FIXING GOOD TRAITS 



task, and the experiment were conducted on a 

 wide enough scale. Indeed, nothing more would 

 be necessary than to continue for an additional 

 number of generations the same line of experi- 

 mentation through which the new varieties were 

 produced; attending carefully at all stages to the 

 analysis of the different qualities that prove to be 

 mutually antagonistic. 



To this end, the new terminology which 

 endeavors to analyze the qualities of a given 

 plant into complementary pairs of unit characters 

 may prove very helpful, particularly to the inex- 

 perienced investigator. 



Such an analysis has always been made, tacitly 

 at any rate, by the successful plant experimenter. 

 No one can think of the development of an early- 

 fruiting cherry or prune without having in mind 

 the quality of Zaf e-frui ting. To speak of a prune 

 with high sugar content implies one with low 

 sugar content. 



In a word, the desired quality of fruit or flower 

 at which one aims is always balanced against 

 the opposing quality — sweet fruit against sour, 

 hardiness against tenderness, resistance to disease 

 against susceptibility to disease, profuse bearing 

 against scant bearing, thorny brier against smooth 

 brier, black fruit against white fruit, and so on 

 down the list. 



[237] 



