03 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Plants (and animals too) will perpetuate their own species, but not 

 always their own variety ; and especially when under cultivation, 

 which has a tendency to effect changes. The very term variety, 

 carries the idea of variation, as that of species does the idea of spe- 

 cific or essential identity. Thus the seed of an apple will always 

 produce an apple — never a pear or plum — but the seed of a Baldwin 

 apple icill not always produce a Baldwin apple, it being a particular 

 form or variety produced by cultivation in a species peculiarly prone 

 to variation. Any particular variety of fruit can be continued only 

 by extension of the original individual, (by means of buds, scions 

 or cuttings.) So in animals : the sheep, the horse, the ass, are 

 each distinct species, and perpetuate their own species, although 

 their progeny may vary in form, size, &c. If, as in the case of the 

 two last named, propagation sometimes takes place between allied 

 species, it ends with the individual produced ; the mule or hybrid 

 being incapable of propagation. So in plants, impregnation some- 

 times takes place between allied species, and hybrids or mules are the 

 result, and these are usually sterile : but when different varieties 

 (of the same species,) are crossed, we have what are termed cross 

 hreds, and these not only propagate by seed but arc often of great 

 value. 



It is by no means improbable that culture and crossing are yet to 

 give us forage plants superior to any now known ; for it should be 

 recollected that the cultivation of grasses is but in its infancy as 

 3'et. It may be worthy of mention in this connection, that the plants 

 known as artificial grasses (clover, &c.) were cultivated in Europe 

 at an earlier date than natural or proper grasses. It is stated on 

 good authority, that Red clover was first sown in England about the 

 year 1645 — little more than two centuries ago — white and yellow 

 clover soon after. Rye grass appears to have been first cultivated 

 there in 1677, but none of the other natural grasses for nearly a 

 century, or about 1750, when it was the practice of some innovating 

 practitioners or progressive farmers to sow along with their clovers, 

 seeds shaken out of the best natural meadow (upland) hay.* In 

 Kew England the case is different. The necessities of the colonists 

 led them to sow natural grasses before it was practiced in England, 



* Morton'f Cyclopedia of Agriculture. 



