SECRETARY'S REPORT. 53 



present only two great functions, viz., reproduction, as the great 

 end of their existence, and nutrition, as the means by which 

 reproduction is to be brought about. The apparent policy of 

 nature in vegetable life is, that many varieties of plants shall 

 grow together, so that each, by its debris, shall furnish some- 

 thing to the common stock of nutriment required by them all. 

 Thus their vitality is maintained steadily without excitement 

 or diminution, and generations appear and disappear in a natu- 

 ral and healthy manner, the soil in which they grow becoming 

 more impregnated with nutriment as each variety decays, it 

 seeming to be a fundamental principle of this successful culti- 

 vator, that the supply of food shall always exceed the demand. 

 Thus her hand preserves that which was good in the beginning, 

 in the same condition to the end. The cultivator of the soil, 

 however, introduces into his process another principle which 

 nature repudiates, viz., pecuniary recompense for his labor, and 

 discovering that the condition which is good for the plant 

 he cultivates, is not good for securing his great object, he 

 sets up a process which we are in the habit of calling improve- 

 ment by cultivation, which, while it enables him to go into the 

 market under much better conditions, is directly injurious in 

 the course of time to the plants under cultivation, and forces 

 upon the farmer the necessity of a constant watchfulness to 

 maintain by hybridization, changes of seed and rotation of crops, 

 a remunerating business. 



But what is cultivation ? We have already alluded to the 

 fact of a reserved vital force on the part of nature, and it is 

 only by calling into action this reserved power, that a more 

 vigorous vitality can be given to any plant, and to a certain 

 extent, and for a limited period of time, this can be done, not 

 only with impunity, but with decided advantage. But accel- 

 erated vitality must, in the course of years, wear very much 

 upon the living machine to which it may be applied, and this 

 acceleration is one of the chief elements of cultivation, its effects 

 being first visible in the shortened life of the plant, the crop 

 ripening earlier, and also manifesting a marked disposition to 

 fail in the amount produced. The potato furnishes a good 

 illustration of this statement. 



But few years have elapsed since the farmer who failed to 

 harvest at least two hundred bushels to the acre, would have 



