A HIGH IDEAL. 33 



getting seed, and he goes to work and cuts off all the spindles 

 of those ears that he does not want to bear. He may have 

 some to begin with that may not be perfectly developed, and 

 others may be developed according to the ideal he has formed 

 in his mind. He does not want those ears that are not 

 developed, and he would throw away all that were not filled 

 out to the very tip. If the corn did not correspond to the 

 picture in his mind, he would reject it, and try again. All 

 these things have to be worked out. But the great thing is 

 to have the idea first in our own minds ; and we often fail, 

 because we do not have a distinct idea of what we want, to 

 begin with. We begin, as it were, at random, and our results 

 are like random shots. 



Now I think, if Mr. Moore never gives us any other idea, 

 he has done a great deal to-day in telling us that we must 

 have this ideal ; and it seems to me that is necessary in all 

 our efforts. If we are only going to hoe a field of potatoes, 

 we want to know what that field of potatoes will look like 

 when we have hoed it ; and we ought not to begin to hoe it 

 unless we have in our minds what it is going to look like 

 when it is done. 



Mr. Had WEN. The sound and practical reasons for seed- 

 growing which have been set forth in the essay are hardly 

 open to any criticism which I can conceive of. The captain 

 seems to have studied, and to understand his subject so well, 

 and is so far ahead of the majority of us farmers, that I think 

 the paper has been very instructive, and will be useful here- 

 after. He speaks of the breeding of animals and the breed- 

 ing of seeds as growing out of the same principles ; and there 

 is no doubt that the same attention given to each of those 

 departments will produce the same results. We can produce 

 better seed by careful culture than we can by hap-hazard 

 culture ; but there are other conditions which always come 

 in, both in vegetable and animal growth, which have to be 

 conformed to. Uniform care and cultivation are absolutely 

 necessary in each. No one would exjDect to raise good, 

 uniform corn, merely from a good selection of seed : the 

 cultivation must be equal : it is so with the feeding of 

 stock. No man can breed uniform stock without uniform 

 care : these conditions are as important as is breeding. 

 Now, the captain has told us one of the principles in the 



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