ed from the longest flax plants the
increase in length shown in the accompanying figure was gained. The
selection of seed from those plants bearing the most seed, regardless of
the height of the plant, has produced flax like that to the right in the
illustration. These two kinds of flax are from the same parent stock,
but slight differences have been emphasized by continued seed-selection,
until we now have really two varieties of flax, one a heavy seed-bearer,
the other producing a long fiber.

You can in a similar way improve your cotton or any other seed crop.
Sugar beets have been made by seed-selection to produce about double the
percentage of sugar that they did a few years ago. Preparing and
tilling land costs too much in money and work to allow the land to be
planted with poor seed. When you are trying by seed-selection to
increase the yield of cotton, there are two principles that should be
borne in mind: first, seed should be chosen only from plants that bear
many well-filled bolls of long-staple cotton; second, seed should be
taken from no plant that does not by its healthy condition show
hardihood in resisting disease and drouth.

The plan of choosing seeds from selected plants may be applied to wheat;
but it would of course be too time-consuming to select enough single
wheat plants to furnish all of the seed wheat for the next year. In this
case adopt the following plan: In Fig. 52 let _A_ represent the total
size of your wheat field and let _B_ represent a plat large enough to
furnish seed for the whole field. At harvest-time go into section _A_
and select the best plants you can find. Pick the heads of these and
thresh them by hand. The seed so obtained must be carefully saved for
your next sowing.

[Illustration: FIG. 52.]

In the fall sow these selected seeds in area _B_. This area should
produce the best wheat. At the next harvest cull not from the whole
field but from the finest plants of plat _B_, and again save these as
seed for plat _B_. Use the unculled seed from plat _B_ to sow your crop.
By following this plan continuously you will every year have seed from
several generations of choice plants, and each year you will improve
your seed.

It is of course advisable to move your seed plat _B_ every year or two.
For the new plat select land that has recently been planted in legumes.
Always give this plat unwearying care.

In the selection of plants from which to get seed, you must know what
k