nx a mmn.i qf Increasinr/ flio Crop. 
373 
good pedigree is as valuable in plants as in animals, and that in 
the careful rearinp^ of seed which has this qualification lies our 
only means of materially increasing the produce of the cereals. 
Amongst animals, whether horses, cattle, sheep, or pigs, the 
importance of " pedigree is fully recognized, as also even in 
reference to some of our agricultural plants ; for if a farmer wants 
a good cabbage, mangold, turnip, or carrot, he selects the seed 
from a good parent, but the moment he deals with the cereals 
he almost ignores the great principle of like producing like, 
which he admits, in the foregoing cases, to be not only a right one, 
but so important as to deserve much attention, and repay much 
outlay. Yet the minutest characteristics of a plant of wheat will 
be reproduced in its descendants ; so much so, that we can not 
only perpetuate the advantages presented to us in an individual 
ear, but, by the accumulation of selection, make further advances 
in any desired direction ; the union of good qualities imparting 
a cumulative force, and their successive renewals and establish- 
ment conferring, as in animals, a " fixity of type." To me it 
has always appeared that, while offering an earnest of what a 
better system would effect, the mode in which the best varieties 
of our cereals have been raised (that of starting with accidentally 
fine ears, and simply keeping the produce unmixed without any 
furtlier selection), is a very imperfect one, and that its attainments 
are perhaps of less value than the earnest which it offers of future 
success under a more complete system : for such beginning (and 
ending, so far as selection is concerned) with an accidentally fine 
ear, is a very different thing from starting annually with one of a 
known lineage. Look at the almost parallel case of two heifers, 
identical in every respect but that of " pedigree ; " the one 
what she is by accident, the other by design ; the one worth 25/., 
the other 300/. ; from the one you may obtain any imaginable 
kind of progeny, from the other only a good hind. 
: The formation of a race of high-bred cereals, in many respects, 
admits of more rapid, complete, and satisfactory development 
than that of animals ; first, because they are far more prolific, 
which gives much greater choice in each renewed selection 
(besides favouring a rapid extension of the improved breed) ; and 
next, because instead of that " delicacy of constitution " often found 
in high-bred animals, the very opposite character will prevail in 
the pedigree plant, which is descended from a line of ancestors, 
each of which vas the most vigorous of its gear, and possesses in 
combination those various good properties by which they, more 
successfully than others, withstood the vicissitudes of season 
experienced during the years of selection. In illustration of these 
principles of selection, 1 now give the following results, due to 
their influence alone, — as the kind of seed, the land, and the 
