SUNFLOWER TRAVELS 
the western prairies at an earlier date and developed it 
through the passing generations. 
The method by which a plant of value can be bred up 
from one of no apparent worth is well known. The huge 
modern tomato has been developed in the last hundred 
years from the “ love apple.” The exquisite roses of the 
garden came from wild roses with flowers much like those 
on the apple tree. 
The improvement comes about from the selection of 
the seeds from the best specimen of one generation to be 
the parent of the next. By selecting the largest sun¬ 
flowers in their patches for seed, these Indians, probably 
holding to the idea for generations, had developed the 
cultivated sunflower from the wild. This, by the way, 
shows that the American Indian, even then, had some 
rather advanced ideas of scientific agriculture. 
Early Canadians had doubtless sent this cultivated 
sunflower back to Europe where it had become popular, 
later to return to its native America and furnish a mys¬ 
tery to be unraveled. 
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