NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SELECTION 549 
that the things of years ago were as good as those of our 
day, or better. Some say the apples of years ago were 
better or kept better or yielded better than the ones we raise 
to-day. As a matter of fact, apples, peaches, oranges, wheat, 
corn, and all the products of the soil to which man has given 
serious attention are bigger, better, and yield more than 
ever before. By careful selection of seed, larger yields of 
superior crops are easily attainable. The state and national 
governments maintain experimental stations where work of 
this nature is carried on. Much other valuable work in 
the way of insect control and soil study is done at these 
stations. 
420. Natural and Artificial Selection. — In nature there 
is a constant struggle among all living things for place, food, 
and opportunity. Whatever aids a plant to grow and shade 
another plant will give the winning plant an advantage. 
Whatever gives an animal protection from its enemies will 
enable that animal to survive. Some do not find protec¬ 
tion and thus perish. Nature selects those forms of life 
that are best fitted to meet all the natural requirements of 
the world where they live. 
Man steps in and selects animals for other reasons than 
those before mentioned. Man may want a fruit of a cer¬ 
tain flavor, or flowers of a certain color, or milk containing a 
certain amount of butter-fat, or corn with a certain number 
of rows of grain on a cob, and he selects the seed that will 
help him do this, or he selects the cows that will give milk 
rich in butter-fat, and eventually he may find what he 
wants. 
Whatever selection man may make is artificial selection, 
while the selection that is made in the world outside of man’s 
control is natural selection. It is natural selection that has 
done the most to make the great variety of plants and ani¬ 
mals in the world, and it is competition, with the elimination 
of the weak and unfit, that makes for the improvement of 
