THE PLAN BOOKS 
sides and their ancestry and the essential life 
history of the progeny are given; nothing is 
left to chance. Many a scientific man has 
been utterly at a loss to know how this man 
knew what he was doing: this is the first 
public mention ever made of the manner by 
which he makes the records which scientific 
men have believed lacking. 
Now and then there will be a large open 
page on which will be a number of diagrams, 
or circles, all connected with each other and 
containing but a few words to each, showing 
how a certain plant has been bred up and 
what important facts developed in the course 
of its history. These diagrams are in red ink 
and the writing in pencil or black ink. When 
the end of a test is nearing and a certain plant 
has been selected,—it may be from among a 
hundred thousand, as the one best of all,—its 
record is accompanied by one or more large 
double crosses marked in deep black ink, which 
shows that this one plant is superior to all 
others. 
When a fruit, for example, has reached the 
point that it appears to be worthy of record,— 
it may be a peach, chosen from ten thousand 
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