ABSTRACT
Traditional plant breeding programs in the naturally self-fertilizing species differ considerably from those utilized with the naturally crossfertilizing species. In both cases, necessary crosses are made by bringing together parents which diverge in gene content for desirable traits. A common procedure with the cross-pollinated species has been to initiate recurrent selection to develop improved populations. Usually one or more generations of random mating of selected genotypes is practiced between cycles. In contrast, with the self-fertilizing species, breeding methods are usually directed toward selfing or backcrossing a series of lines to homozygosity with little, if any, intercrossing beyond the initial source hybrid or population.
