336 Ever-sporting Varieties 



they will be far better nourished than if no 

 operation were made. 



In order to control this experiment some 

 breeders have made the operation on the fruits 

 when ripe, instead of on the young pods, and 

 have saved the seeds from the upper parts sep- 

 arately. This seed, produced in abundance, 

 was found to be very poor in double flowers, 

 containing only some 20 - 30^. On the con- 

 trary the percentage of doubles in the seed of 

 the lower parts was somewhat augmented, and 

 the average of both would have given the normal 

 proportion of 50%. 



Opposed to the French method is the German 

 practice of cultivating stocks, as I have seen it 

 used on a very large scale at Erfurt and at other 

 places. The stocks are grown in pots on small 

 scaffolds, and not put on or into the earth. 

 The obvious aim of this practice is to keep the 

 earth in the pots dry, and accordingly they are 

 only scantily watered. In consequence they 

 cannot develop as fully as they would have done 

 when planted directly in the beds, and they pro- 

 duce only small racemes and no weak twigs, 

 eliminating thereby without further operation 

 the weaker seeds as by the French method. 

 The effect is increased by planting from 6-10 

 separate plants in each pot. 



It would be very interesting to make compar- 



