POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



281 



a view to the greatest possible increase in 

 seed production, and in the other for just 

 the opposite purpose. In our cereals selec- 

 tions are made to produce the greatest 

 amount of seed with the least possible 

 amount of straw. To that end, in the best 

 wheat-growing sections, the longest and best>- 

 fiUed heads are selected, and those, too, in 

 which the grains are the heaviest, for seed 

 purposes. The seed thus saved is given the 

 greatest possible aid to reproduction by 

 growing it on soil best adapted to its de- 

 velopment ; by giving each plant sufficient 

 room to grow strong, rather than tall ; and 

 by furnishing plant food proportionate to its 

 necessities. At the proper time, if the same 

 careful selection is again made and the same 

 care in cultivation given, there will result 

 another marked improvement, both in size 

 and productiveness of the grain. The opera- 

 tion, oft repeated, will establish a type supe- 

 rior to that from which the first selection 

 was made. To preserve that type, the same 

 care must be given that was necessary to 

 produce it. In selection for vegetables, 

 where seeds are only used to i-eproduce the 

 plant, the opposite course must be pursued, 

 and forms must be chosen that produce as 

 little seed as possible. It has often been 

 demonstrated that when any given type has 

 been developed by selection, either rapidly 

 or slowly, under favorable conditions of soil 

 and climate, it will as rapidly revert when 

 grown under reverse conditions. It is also 

 true that any form that will materially re- 

 vert when grown under changed conditions 

 for a few years will proportionately change 

 in one year. This will, in a measure, ac- 

 count for the deterioration of varieties 

 where the stock seed has been grown un- 

 der different conditions from those under 

 which the type originated. In most in- 

 stances one year's growth will not materially 

 change a type, but in all cases where a type 

 is to be preserved it requires the same care 

 in selection and cultivation and other condi- 

 tions as those under which it originated. 



Uuiversity Extension. The American So- 

 ciety for the Extension of University Teach- 

 ing looks upon the creation of a literature 

 embodying the experience of the movement 

 as a prime condition of its ultimate success. 

 Such literature has been materially enriched 



during the last twelve months. The num- 

 ber of lecture courses given during 1893 was 

 larger, and the number of people attending 

 the courses was, in the aggregate, greater 

 than in any previous year. An appreciable 

 advance has been made toward bringing 

 home the benefits of university extension to 

 some classes of society who have for the 

 most part thus far stood aloof from it. The 

 society's net receipts for the year were 

 $8,119. The programme for the last year 

 included lecture courses on a variety of sub- 

 jects in history and literature, and " class 

 courses" on subjects in which civics and 

 physiology and hygiene played a conspicu- 

 ous pai-t. " It is in these days of news- 

 papers, cheap story papers, labor unions, and 

 similar agencies," says the report, " not a 

 question of culture or no culture ; it is a 

 question of culture of the right sort, ob- 

 tained under the guidance of properly quali- 

 fied teachers, or culture of the wrong sort, 

 under the guidance of uneducated and inter- 

 ested parties. Which shall it be ? The so- 

 cialist, the anarchist, the fanatic is to-day 

 supplying systematic culture to a large and 

 increasing number of our population. Shall 

 some counteracting agency be kept at work 

 or not? No one can study the extension 

 movement carefully, investigate what it ac- 

 complishes for individuals and communities, 

 without becoming convinced that even if it 

 were to go no further than providing isolated 

 courses of lectures upon the various branches 

 of human culture, which should be given 

 now in one place and now in another, occur- 

 ring one winter and dropping out the next, 

 it would still be eminently worth support 

 and maintenance." 



Palaeography. Palaeography the art of 

 identifying, comparing, and deciphering an- 

 cient manuscripts is founded on our knowl- 

 edge and experience of the development of 

 modern forms of writing. Children at school 

 learning to write from the same copy form 

 hands much alike, which become differen- 

 tiated according to the individual characters 

 of the several pupils, while they still bear 

 the marks of a common style. " Any one," 

 says Mr. E. M. Thompson, in his Greek and 

 Latin Palaeography (published in the Interna- 

 tional Scientific Series), " will readily distin- 

 guish the handwritmgs of mdividuals of his 



