Luther Burbank, his methods and discoveries and their practical application; prepared from his original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement . and under conditions of cultivationhas become a very fixed race, little subject tovariation. When we deal with races of fruits that tendto vary almost indefinitely, and when further weare concerned with ten or a dozen unit characters,the matter becomes vastly more involved, as wehave previously seen illustrated. But the amateur will do well to begin hisexperiments with simple cases, deal
Luther Burbank, his methods and discoveries and their practical application; prepared from his original field notes covering more than 100,000 experiments made during forty years devoted to plant improvement . and under conditions of cultivationhas become a very fixed race, little subject tovariation. When we deal with races of fruits that tendto vary almost indefinitely, and when further weare concerned with ten or a dozen unit characters,the matter becomes vastly more involved, as wehave previously seen illustrated. But the amateur will do well to begin hisexperiments with simple cases, dealing with onlya single quality, say a particular color of flower,that he may thus learn to distinguish the prin-ciples here enunciated. In due course he may goon to apply these principles to more complicatedexperiments in plant hybridization. But unlesshe learns at the outset that certain charactersthat are submerged in the first hybrid generationwill inevitably reappear in the second, he willconstantly blunder in his interpretation of tenta-tive results. On the other hand, when he has learned togauge his second-generation hybrids correctly,he is on the highway to success as a plant experi-menter. [29]. Ccmmon, French, and Burhank Mangolds^ The large double Burbank marigolds have been developed Jrom the small single flowers through selective breeding. By cross-Jer- tilizing different varieties, a tendency to variation ^nfaced. and by preserving Jot seed purposes only those flowersWhich vary m the desired directio7t, any given quality is accentuated, until finally such a metamorphosis as this is brought about. The rapidity oj development varies with different plants, but many generations are required to produce such a transformation as that shown in this picture. Plant Affinities Choosing the Lines ofLeast Resistance WHY do not plants hybridize in a stateof nature? a visitor asked me. Youseem to get most of your new varietiesby hybridizing old ones. Why does not Naturetake a leaf
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