Selection: Experimental Results

Abstract

The scientific basis of maize breeding and selection based on planned experiments started at the end of the 19th century. The first methods (mass selection and ear-to-row selection) were soon abandoned because of their supposed lack of efficiency in improving complex traits, such as grain yield. Some other methods and modifications of the previous ones have been used during the 20th century for improvement of populations, mainly after recurrent selection was recognized as a useful method to increase the frequency of favorable alleles in populations (Jenkins, 1940; Hull, 1945; Comstock et al., 1949; Lonnquist, 1949; Sprague and Brimhall, 1950; Jenkins et al., 1954). Also, improvement of populations was recognized as an imperative to increase the probability of obtaining superior and diverse inbred lines and hybrids.