92 



FARM CROPS 



year. Crop rotation is as important to the seed 

 plot as it is for the main crop. 



When this seed plot crop matures, you get a 

 chance for a study of superior plants. You will 

 note great variations and some plants will show 

 the same marked increase that the selected seed 

 did in the first place over the main crop. 



The seed plot offers an opportunity to trace out 

 the superior strains. The animal breeders call this 

 prepotency. It represents the power of the parent 

 to transmit superior qualities to the offspring. 

 Some animals do this to a remarkable degree ; some 

 plants do not. If individual farm plants be not 

 studied, there is no opportunity to discover the 

 prepotent strains. Those possessing weak trans- 

 mitting power are not desirable for breeding stock 

 and these should be discarded. Preserve seed from 

 the plants only that are able to propagate their 

 individual qualities and merits, otherwise your 

 progress will be slow. 



This plan of seed improvement should never be 

 abandoned. The choicest fruit from the choicest 

 plants should be selected each year for the next 

 year's seed plot, and the balance, which ought to 

 make enough seed for the main crop, should be 

 used for that purpose. In this way, the seed plot 

 is to be used to furnish seed for the main crop and 

 the choice plants selected out of the seed plot are to 

 be used as seed for the next year's seed plot. If 

 this method of seed selection be continued long 

 enough, there will be no running out of seed, nor 

 will there be any deterioration in high yielding 

 qualities. And all the time the crop will be im- 

 proving because the seed is being made better. 

 The seed plot does for farm crops what the Babcock 



