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appearance will be much increased by a large number of individuals being
→and hence this comes to be
of the highest importance
success. On this principle Marshall
remarked, with respect to the sheep of parts of Yorkshire,
"as they generally belong to poor people, and are mostly
in
small
they never can be improved." On the other hand, nurserymen, from
large stocks of the same
are generally far more successful than amateurs in
new and valuable varieties. ↑
The keeping of a large number of individuals of a species in any country requires that the species should be placed under favourable conditions of life, so as to breed freely in that country. When the individuals
→of any species
are scanty, all
→the individuals,
whatever their quality may be,
→will generally be allowed to breed,
and this will effectually prevent selection. But probably the most important
→point of all is
that the animal or plant should be so highly
→useful to man, or so much
valued by
that the closest attention
paid to even the slightest
in
qualities or
Unless such attention be paid nothing can be effected. I have seen it gravely remarked, that it was most fortunate that the strawberry began to vary just when gardeners began to attend
to this plant. No doubt the strawberry had always varied since it was cultivated, but the slight varieties had been neglected. As soon, however, as gardeners picked out individual plants with slightly larger, earlier, or better fruit, and raised seedlings from them, and again picked out the best seedlings and bred from them,
→there appeared (aided by some crossing with
distinct species) those many admirable varieties of the strawberry
→which have been raised
during the last
→thirty or forty years.
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