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breeding rules

As a result of the growing seed-swap I'm starting to see alot of genetic
information about pumpkin seeds, mostly the weights of the enclosing
pumpkin and of its parents.   I've seen one chart that went back 5
generations, all the way to a Dill ancestor in ~90.  I find it hard to
evaluate the various prospects, and am looking for some help.

What heuristics do people use to identify desireable seeds?  I won't say
"rules", since that would imply too much hubris, but here are some ideas to
get the ball rolling:

(1) the greater the number of Big  pumpkins in the ancestry, the better.
(2) the bigger the immediate parent, the better
(3) open pollination is luck-of-the-draw.  Prefer known crosses.
(4) self-pollination is desirable only on proven seeds
(5) the vigor of the parent plant is approximately as important as the
parent's
      weight.

I imagine the most general rule is to pick plants with desireable traits
and breed them into the developing line.  We tend to equate desireable with
"huge", but I wonder if that isn't an overemphasis (see #5).

Anyone out there have background in animal husbandry?   Ideas from that
area must be relevant.

Come to think of it, how long did it take Howard Dill to develope the
Atlantic Giant line?  What rules did *he* use?

	Dan Shapiro
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