The Art of Recreation
The truth is—and the expert seedsmen should earn our continual gratitude—that almost all our garden or field plants demand yearly renewal. Different words are used. Mr. John Garton, a great hybridizer of farm crops, used the word " regeneration." A member of Sutton's stresses
recreation " ; and thus recreated plants win most of the first prizes. Sir Roland Biffen probably thinks in terms of Mendelian' selection ; but the point is that all this progress in developing garden plants of sorts " would be com- pletely lost within a few years unless some form of recreation were most thoroughly and scientifically practised con- tinuously. It is the result of this necessary straining after perfection that we see at the great shows ; and they do a general service by rewarding the achievement.
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