204 



SELECTION 



Chap. XX. 



have time to breed. In Spain Cardinal Ximenes issued, in 1509 

 regulations on the selection of good rams for breeding. 45 



The Emperor Akbar Khan before the year 1600 is said to 



sing the 



About 



;est care 



have " wonderfully improved " his pigeons by cro* 

 breeds ; and this necessarily implies careful selection 



the same period the Dutch attended with the 



gr 



the breeding of these birds. Belon in 1555 says that good 



managers in France examined the colour of 



g 



order to get geese of a white colour and better kinds. Markham 

 in 1631 tells the breeder "to elect the largest and goodliest 



ipect 



conies, 



?> 



and 



into minute details. Even with 





seeds of plants for the flower-garden, Sir J. Hanmer writing 



says 



choosing seed, the best seed 



about the year 1660 



the most weighty, and is had from the lustiest and most vigor- 

 he then gives rules about leaving only a few 



stems ;" and 



flowers 



on 



a 



for seed; so that even such details were 



>. In 



attended to in our flower-gardens two hundred years ago. 

 order to show that selection has been silently carried on in 

 places where it would not have been expected, I may add that 

 in the middle of the last century, in a remote part of North 

 America, Mr. Cooper improved by careful selection all his 



getables 



that they were greatly superior to those of any 



a 



other person. When his radishes, for instance, are fit for use, 

 he takes ten or twelve that he most approves, and plants 

 them at least 100 yards from others that blossom at the same 



time 



In 



same manner he treats all his 



ying the circumstances according 



pla 



47 



In the great work on China published in the last century by 

 the Jesuits, and which is chiefly compiled from ancient Chinese 

 encyclopaedias, it is said that with sheep " improving the breed 

 " consists in choosing with particular care the lambs which are 



n 



destined for 



propagation, in nourishing them well, and in 



keeping the flocks separate." The same principles were 

 pplied by the Chinese to various plants and fruit-trees. 48 



An 



45 M. l'Abbe Carlier, in ' Journal de 

 Physique,' vol. xxiv., 1784, p. 181 : this 

 memoir contains much information on 

 the ancient selection of sheep ; and is logia/ 1800, p. 451. 



46 ' Gardener's Chronicle/ 1843, p. 389. 

 47 Communications to Board of Agri- 

 culture, quoted in Dr. Darwin's ' Pliyto- 



my authority for rams not being killed 

 young in England. 



48 'Memoire sur les Ohinois,' 1786 

 torn. xi. p. 55 ; torn. v. p. 507. 





