SECRETARY'S REPORT. 55 



ordinarily reproduce perfect specimens of their kind. It is a 

 law of life that organized beings may be improved (if the term 

 is allowable) only to a certain limit, and when that limit is 

 reached, deterioration commences. Who has ever succeeded 

 ill propagating from the enormously overgrown animals, upon 

 which the highest premiums are often improperly awarded, a 

 progeny which has borne any relation to the size of the parents? 



How many of the world's master minds have left behind 

 them descendants which in natural powers have not fallen far 

 away from the rank of their progenitors ? 



How many farmers, seeking to improve their crops by plant- 

 ing the seeds of unusually large specimens of the vegetable 

 world, have met only with disappointment in the great reduc- 

 tion of the future crop ? At the great exhibition of the indus- 

 try of all nations, in London, a squash was exhibited weighing 

 250 pounds. Of this, a single seed was brought to this country, 

 and its largest single result weighed less than 200 pounds. In 

 the third generation the weight was about 150 pounds. A few 

 seeds from this specimen came into the hands of the chairman 

 of this committee, and the result of great effort and care was 

 a single squash weighing less than twenty pounds ; and the 

 seeds obtained from this production, matured during the last 

 season, two squashes, neither of which would equal in size 

 some of the Baldwin apples which are frequently to be seen at 

 our agricultural exhibitions. Errors in selecting seed have 

 done much to propagate disease in the vegetable kingdom, it 

 having been regarded as a universal rule that the largest and 

 most perfectly developed specimens should be carefully reserved 

 to furnish the seed for the next year's crop. Upon this point, 

 it may be necessary to say a few words to prevent misunder- 

 standing. To* a partial extent, the rule is correct, if a proper 

 consideration is given to all the circumstances of growth. I 

 suppose every sensible farmer would be unwilling to attempt 

 the improvement of his stock of cattle by the use of a male 

 which had by very stimulating food, been forced to an unusu- 

 ally large growth, the progeny, if any were obtained, being 

 far less likely to be of that healthy character which would 

 make them acceptable to cattle growers, than if the sire was 

 smaller but the animal more vigorous in health. 



