BEAL ON RELATIONS OF BOTANY TO AGRICULTURE. 99 



yet it is certain, that those practical results icill he a long time filtering 

 into the minds of those icho icill eventually most profit by them." The 

 lines which I have italicised are prophetic. 



It is now twentv-flve years since this book appeared, yet we have 

 heard of scarcely any horticulturists who have practiced what Mr. Dar- 

 win showed to be advantageous. I have heard of nothing that has since 

 been done in a practical way, in Europe, to confirm or disprove any 

 experiments of Darwin. In this country, I have heard, as I now 

 recollect, of only a very few instances of experiments in this line, ex- 

 cepting some which I conducted soon after the book was published.* 

 These results were presented at several conventions and a report printed 

 in several journals, yet scarcely any one seems to have taken any note 

 of them. 



The following from IVIr. Darwin's book should be committed to mem- 

 ory by every progressive horticulturist: "It is a common practice with 

 horticulturists to obtain seeds from another place having a very differ- 

 ent soil so as to avoid raising plants for a long succession of generations 

 under the same conditions; but with all the species which freely inter- 

 cross by the aid of insects or the wind, it would be an incomparably 

 better plan to obtain seeds of the required variety, which had been 

 raised for some generations under as different conditions as possible, 

 and sow them in alternate rows with seeds matured in the old garden. 



"The two stocks would then intercross, with a thorough blending of 

 their whole organizations, and with no less purity to the variety; and 

 this would yield far more favorable results than a mere exchange of 

 seeds." 



A thorough knowledge of botany will every day add much to the 

 pleasure and satisfaction of the agriculturist, as plants in various con- 

 ditions in the ever changing seasons are everywhere about him in great 

 variety and profusion. Such knowledge is indispensable to enable him 

 to receive the greatest benefit j:>ossible from a visit taken in any country 

 at any time. 



* See Amer. Journ. Scl. and Arts, May, 1879. 



