14G STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



returns in the case of grains depend as much upon the quality of the seed 

 used as do those of the cattle-raiser upon good stock (in proof of which I 

 would simply say that Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, of Massachusetts, found a dif- 

 ference of 100 per cent in the yield of two large fields of corn as the result 

 of using stocks of the same variety received from different sources, and in my 

 test-garden last summer I found a difference of 400 per cent in the yield of 

 different stocks of red Weathersfield onions treated in the same manner, even 

 to the extent of having the same number of plants in a row), under these 

 circumstances we should expect the amount of the premiums to represent 

 the relative importance of these products. Do they? I have no data at hand 

 later than 1873, when the estimated value of all the cattle, cheese and butter, 

 as given in the Michigan census, was about $24,000,000, and that of the wheat 

 crop $18,000,000, corn $0,000,000. So that the premiums amount to one 

 cent for each $G0 worth of cattle and the relatively munificent sum of one 

 cent for each $2,500 of wheat and corn. Do not these figures show clearly 

 that, although we may admit the individuality of the seed, practically we do 

 not act upon or appreciate it, and have not I a right to claim that the first 

 and great obstacle in the way of maintaining good seed is this want of appre- 

 ciation of their value? 



Another difflcuulty is found in the wonderful variability of the vegetable 

 kingdom, especially of cultivated vegetables. All our cabbages, broccoli, 

 etc., have probably descended from one species and certainly from not more 

 than four or five, and many (we might almost say any of the) varieties can be 

 developed from another if care and time enough are taken; but last summer 

 I had growing in my garden upwards of 50 distinct varieties. One of these, 

 the Early York cabbage, scarcely expanded its dull, unattractive leaves at all, 

 so early did it commence to head, and no sooner was the head formed than it 

 commenced to decay and the plant died, its stem never exceeding 10 inches in 

 length, and at all stages it was one of the most unattractive of plants, which 

 no one would think of cultivating for its beauty ; but in the Isle of Jersey, cab- 

 bages which originally came from the same stock as this, grow to the night 

 of 12 to 16 feet, and the people make walking sticks and even rafters for their 

 barns from the dried stalks, and the plant never heads at all : and I was told 

 by one whose taste in matters of the beautiful is unquestioned that the most 

 beautiful plant in all Detroit was a plant of variegated curled kale, at least a 

 cousin of my homely cabbage. One who has studied the cultivated cucurbita- 

 cece most carefully, having had over 1200 varieties in cultivation under his 

 own eye, is of the opinion that all our cultivated melons, squashes, gourds, 

 etc., can be referred to three species ; but Darwin reports finding one fruit 

 000 times larger than another, and then infinite variation of color and form 

 are familiar to you all. Nor is this variation confined to the botanically un- 

 important elements of size, form, or color. The common Zonale geranium 

 shows within the same species varieties which need almost as much water as an 

 aquatic and those which only thrive when as dry as a cactus; sorts which must 

 be most severely pruned in order to bloom and those which will not flower if 

 touched with a knife ; winter bloomers and those which blossom only in the 

 summer; annuals have been developed into biannuals and biannuals into 

 annuals; in short, to quote Darwin, who says, in Variations of Animals 

 and Plants under Domestication: "It will not be disputed that we have 

 instances of great variability in organs of the highest physiological impor- 

 tance." But you quote back from the same author that "we may infer that 



