Seed-breeding 403 



ing interest, seed-buyers are becoming more cautious and 

 discriminating. Seeds are now wanted for their inherent 

 quality rather than merely to represent a varietal name. 



The breeding of seeds. 



This means that plants, as well as animals, must be 

 " bred " ; that is, they should have si known history, coming 

 from parents of accepted quality and attributes. The 

 breeding of seeds has come to be an extensive business. 

 The discriminating farmer makes sure that his oats repre- 

 sent a carefully chosen parentage and that the " seed " has 

 been produced under accepted safeguards. He is willing 

 to pay the extra cost of producing such seeds. Crops, of 

 the grains, cotton and vegetables, as well as florists' flow- 

 ers, have been much improved in quality and yield by the 

 work of plant-breeders, and greater gains are yet to come. 

 The gardener may not desire to enter the larger fields of 

 plant-breeding, but he should at least be aware of the im- 

 portance of the subject and he should be able to practice 

 intelligent selection. 



The usual means at the disposal of the grower is to 

 ''select" his seed plants. He must understand that the 

 quality is usually an attribute of the plant as a whole and 

 not of 'a single fruit or branch; he therefore looks for 

 plants that bear the produce he wants and does not take 

 seeds from miscellaneous good fruits or pods he finds in 

 the market. 



Finding a plant in his field that has strong and useful 

 variation, he marks it and saves seed from it. The plant 

 may be a tomato; perhaps he finds two or more plants. 



