CHAPTER XVIII 



PLANT-BREEDING 



We should find little satisfaction in the culture of 

 plants if we could not improve them. The improvement 

 may be in larger size of the entire plant or any of its 

 parts, change in color, shape, flavor or other character- 

 istics. The whole subject of improving or modifying 

 plants by plan and forethought is known as plant-breed- 

 ing. 



432. Improvement of plants under culture. — From 

 our point of view, our cultivated varieties of plants are 

 superior to their wild prototypes. The strawberries of 

 our gardens are larger, more productive and firmer than 

 those of the fields; the cultivated lettuces are more 

 vigorous, more tender and milder in flavor than wild 

 lettuces; and the cultivated cabbages and cauliflower 

 are greatly superior, in the food products they furnish, 

 to their progenitors. The superior qualities of long- 

 cultivated plants, as compared with their wild parents, 

 are conspicuous wherever the wild forms are known. 



433. Causes of improvement. — This improvement 

 probably results from two causes. In culture, the natural 

 hindrances to development are largely removed. Culti- 

 vated plants are less crowded by too-near neighbors than 

 wild plants, and they commonly receive more abundant 



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