e scale and a selection was again made from
them. About two hundred samples of ears were chosen, each apparently
constituting a different type. Their seeds were sown on separate plots
and manured and treated as much as possible in the same manner. The
plots were small and arranged in rows so as to facilitate the comparison
of allied types. During the whole period of growth and during the
ripening of the ears the plots were carefully studied and compared: they
were harvested separately; ears and kernels were counted and weighed,
and notes were made concerning layering, rust and other cereal pests.

The result of this experiment was, in the main, no distinct improvement.
Nilsson was especially struck by the fact that the plots, which should
represent distinct types, were far from uniform. Many of them were as
multiform as the fields from which the parent-ears were taken. Others
showed variability in a less degree, but in almost all of them it was
clear that a pure race had not been obtained. The experiment was a fair
one, inasmuch as it demonstrated the polymorphic variability of cereals
beyond all doubt and in a degree hitherto unsuspected; but from the
standpoint of the selectionist it was a failure. Fortunately there were,
however, one or two exceptions. A few lots showed a perfect uniformity
in regard to all the stalks and ears: these were small families. This
fact suggested the idea that each might have been derived from a single
ear. During the selection in the previous summer, Nilsson had tried to
find as many ears as possible of each new type which he recognised in
his fields. But the variability of his crops was so great, that he was
rarely able to include more than two or three ears in the same group,
and, in a few cases, he found only one representative of the supposed
type. It might, therefore, be possible that those small uniform plots
were the direct progeny of ears, the grains of which had not been mixed
with those from other ears before sowing. Exact records had, of course,
been kept of the chosen samples, and the number of ears had been noted
in each case. It was, therefore, possible to answer the question and it
was found that those plots alone were uniform on which the kernels of
one single ear only had been sown. Nilsson concluded that the mixture
of two or more ears in a single sowing might be the cause of the lack of
uniformity in the progeny. Apparently similar ears might be different in
their progen