Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . which purely bred strains of corn may produceby this unavoidable and inexterminable kind of can state only that the characters of the single cars of apure race will differ somew^hat from one another. The char-acters are oscillating around the mean condition in corres-pondence to the more or less favorable hfe-concUtions of thesingle plants. According to our experience with other plants,the deviating ears of a pure race may possess the y)owcr oftransmitting the good yielding quahties of the strain to thesame degr
Plant-breeding; comments on the experiments of Nilsson and Burbank . which purely bred strains of corn may produceby this unavoidable and inexterminable kind of can state only that the characters of the single cars of apure race will differ somew^hat from one another. The char-acters are oscillating around the mean condition in corres-pondence to the more or less favorable hfe-concUtions of thesingle plants. According to our experience with other plants,the deviating ears of a pure race may possess the y)owcr oftransmitting the good yielding quahties of the strain to thesame degree as the average specimens. But, of course, inpractice, they can hardly be reUed upon on account of thealways possible contaminations by foreign pollen. In allcases where the uniformity of the cars and the kernels is show-ing such fluctuating variabiUty a choice of the best ears willhave to be made. But this choice is made in the interest ofa regular planting and a normal stand and not of a racial im-provement by selection. It is difficult to appreciate the dif-. 129 I30 PLANT-BREEDING ference between the variability among tlie races and withinthe races themselves, and only a comparison with the phe-nomena observed in other plants will lead to a clear and use-ful distinction. The history of the breeding of corn is a very short dates from the discovery of the principle of single-ear se-lection, ten years ago. The observation of the individualityof the progeny of one single ear is the basis of this enables us to estimate the hereditary value of an ear by theinspection of its progeny. It is in full accord with themethods of Hays and Von Lochow, who applied them towheat and rye, and with the Svalof method. It is differentfrom them only on account of the impurity of the fertilizationof the selected ear, as we have already described. Sincethe discovery of tliis principle of single ear selection, combreeding has rapidly developed and it is now holding apre-eminent pl
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