Seven ambitious brothers and how they bred a race of kings / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D.

Date:
[1914]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Seven ambitious brothers and how they bred a race of kings / editor: Henry Smith Williams, M.D., LL.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/32 page 8
    broader principles of the Burbank methods, with mere suggestions as to their application along var- ious lines that will be given detailed treatment in successive monographs. Mr. Burbank himself has very explicitly stated that the essence of his method is rational and per- sistent selection. In a comprehensive experiment in plant development, he (1) selects parent forms to be mated; and then (2) selects the best individ- uals among the progeny and if necessary remates these to bring desired characters into the heredi- tary strain. When the right combinations have been produced, he (3) continues to select the best individuals, generation after generation, now prac- ticing inbreeding instead of cross-breeding that the desired traits may be accentuated by repeti- tion. Casual observers of Mr. Burbank’s work have been impressed with the early stages of this line of experimentation somewhat to the oversight of the later stages. The hybridizing of species brought from widely different regions of the world is a somewhat more spectacular process than the continued inbreeding or “line breeding” of a given race, since the latter process seems to consist of nothing more than the selection of the best indi- vidual specimens generation after generation. But in Mr. Burbank’s opinion, this process of [8]
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3