No. 602] 



THE SELECTION PROBLEM 



79 



V. Coville^^ succeeded in discovering some years ago the 

 two essentials for the successful cultivation or domestica- 

 tion of the swamp blueberry (Vaccinium corymhosum) . 

 These were found to be (1) an acid soil, and (2) a root 

 fungus that appears to supply the plant with nitrogen. 

 When these essentials are supplied, and the plant brought 

 under cultivation, a marked improvement in the size and 

 quality of the berries at once occurs. Further improve- 

 ment is being made by hybridization, and by seeking 

 superior natural variations to be used in such hybridiza- 

 tion and for asexual propagation. In his latest paper 

 Coville makes this statement, the significance of which 

 in the present connection will be noted. 



Seedling plants, even from tlie largest berried wild parents, produce 

 small berries as often as large ones. 



Selection, in the Darwinian sense, is playing no part in 

 the improvement of the blueberry, so far as we can learn 

 from the published records. The essential factors in the 

 improvement are better conditions, hybridization, and 

 the asexual propagation or superior natural variations. 



Let us now turn to other sorts of plants. In 1910 my 

 colleague. Dr. Frank M. Surface, originated a variety of 

 oats, known as Maine 340, which is superior to any variety 

 which we have been able to find in the market and test. 

 It is now widely grown in Maine. For the conditions of 

 soil and climate in that state it is certainly to be regarded 

 as the most highly ' ' improved ' ' variety known. Its origin 

 and history are fully known, indeed are originally re- 

 corded in the archives of this laboratory.^^'^ All of the 

 thousands upon thousands of bushels of tliis Maine 340 

 oat which were grown this year are the lineal, unchanged 

 descendants of one particular oat plant wliich Dr. Surface 

 isolated in 1910. That original plant has simply been 

 multiplied, by seed, year after year witliout selection of 



29 Coville, F. v., U. S. Dept. Agr. Bulletin 19.^ lOlO; Circular 122. 1913; 

 Bulletin 334, 1915. 



30 Cf. Surface, F. M., and Zinn. J., Me. Agr. Expt. Stat. Ann. Kept, for 

 1916, pp. 97-148. 



