wo plants, the plant that springs from a seed
is much more likely to differ from its mother plant, that is, from the
plant that produces the seed, than is a plant produced merely by buds.
In some cases plants "come true to seed" very accurately. In others they
vary greatly. For example, when we plant the seed of wheat, turnips,
rye, onions, tomatoes, tobacco, or cotton, we get plants that are in
most respects like the parent plant. On the other hand the seed of a
Crawford peach or a Baldwin apple or a Bartlett pear will not produce
plants like its parent, but will rather resemble its wild forefathers.
These seedlings, thus taking after their ancestors, are always far
inferior to our present cultivated forms. In such cases seeding is not
practicable, and we must resort to bud propagation of one sort or
another.

While in a few plants like those just mentioned the seed does not "come
true," most plants, for example, cotton, tobacco, and others, do "come
true." When we plant King cotton we may expect to raise King cotton.
There will be, however, as every one knows, some or even considerable
variation in the field. Some plants, even in exactly the same soil, will
be better than the average, and some will be poorer. Now we see this
variation in the plants of our field, and we believe that the plant will
be in the main like its parent. What should we learn from this? Surely
that if we wish to produce sturdy, healthy, productive plants we must go
into our fields and _pick out just such plants to secure seed from as we
wish to produce another year_. If we wait until the seed is separated
from the plant that produced it before we select our cotton seed, we
shall be planting seed from poor as well as from good plants, and must
be content with a crop of just such stock as we have planted. By
selecting seed from the most productive plants _in the field_ and by
repeating the selection each year, you can continually improve the breed
of the plant you are raising. In selecting seed for cotton you may
follow the plan suggested below for wheat.

[Illustration: FIGS. 49 AND 50. CHRYSANTHEMUMS AND ASPARAGUS]

The difference that you see between the wild and the cultivated
chrysanthemums and between the samples of asparagus shown in Figs. 49
and 50 was brought about by just such continuous seed-selection from the
kind of plant wanted.

[Illustration: FIG. 51. TWO VARIETIES OF FLAX FROM ONE PARENT STOCK]

By the careful selection of se