Seed-l reeding 403 



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mg 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. 



Tlie breeding of seeds. 



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

 ^' bred " ; that is, they should have a 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, ])ut 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. 



