Some decades after Le Couteur,
this method was taken up by the celebrated breeder Patrick Sheriff of
Haddington in Scotland. His belief, which was general at that time, was
"That cultivation has not been found to change well defined kinds, and
that improvement can be best attained by selecting new and superior
varieties, which nature occasionally produces, as if inviting the
husbandman to stretch forth his hand and cultivate them."
Before going into the details of Sheriff's work it is as well to say
something concerning [108] the use of the word "selection." This word
was used by Sheriff as seen in the quotation given, and it was obviously
designed to convey the same idea as the word "lecta" in the quotation
from Virgil. It was a choice of the best plants from among known mixed
fields, but the chosen individuals were considered to be representatives
of pure and constant races, which could only be isolated, but not
ameliorated. Selection therefore, in the primitive sense of the word, is
the choice of elementary species and varieties, with no other purpose
than that of keeping them as pure as possible from the admixture of
minor sorts. The Romans attained this end only imperfectly, simply
because the laws governing the struggle for life and the competition of
numerous sorts in the fields were unsuspected by them.
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