FERTILIZATION BY INFERIOR STOCK. 77 



There is a curious thing about this result. It shows that 

 the effect will appear in one kernel, and not in another, just 

 as you may see, in a family of children, one that will take 

 after neither father nor mother, but will take after some 

 ancestor far removed. 



Now, we are very particular in regard to raising animals ; 

 but we do not take sufficient pains, it seems to me, to pro- 

 cure good seed for our crops. We have growing in all our 

 fields a large amount of very inferior corn. We have some 

 that produces very small ears. We have suckers coming up 

 that may not produce any corn : they will put out tassels, 

 and produce pollen ; and some of our corn is fertilized by 

 that pollen. We pick out the large ears that grow on large 

 stalks, and we say, " We will take these for seed." That is 

 doing well. But then those large and plump kernels may 

 have been fertilized by very inferior stalks of corn ; they 

 may have been fertilized by some suckers even, that were 

 unable to produce corn at all. Don't you suppose those 

 kernels from ears that have grown on large stalks will have 

 a tendency to produce those small, insignificant ears of corn, 

 such as the stalks by which they are fertilized bore ? I have 

 no doubt of it. My judgment is, that in order to raise good, 

 prolific seed-corn, it will be necessary for a man to plant 

 the best seed he can procure ; and before the corn tassels, 

 before it produces pollen, to go along the rows, and cut out 

 every mean, miserable stalk, so that every ear shall stand on 

 a proper stalk (that is, have a proper mother), and shall be 

 fertilized by pollen that has come from a strong, healthy, 

 corn-producing stalk. If you will follow that up for years, I 

 believe you will have corn of a size and quality that you 

 cannot produce by the common method of selecting seed. 



I told you I should come back, by variation, to the corn. 

 That is the point from which I should have desired to start, 

 had I not been informed that another man is to take that as 

 his starting-point to-morrow night. Now, Mr. Flint wrote 

 me, that, if I would come down and do this very ungracious 

 work, I might stop just when I pleased. I have come to the 

 point where I propose to stop this purely extemporaneous 

 speech. But there is one thing more I want to present. 

 Look at these flowers and fruits, and see what the vegetable 

 kingdom is to-day j think of that power that has been lodged 



