206 STATE BOAKD OF AGKICULTUKE. 



a few years by jarring the curculio, by using chips on the ground, by the use of 

 Paris green for the potato beetle, and bands on trees for the codling moth, and 

 other pi'ocesses. This matter of insects is one of the most promising fields for 

 the common farmer to experiment upon. Let him try everything he can think 

 of and watch the result, regardless of theories or preconceived notions. A few 

 have dusted slaked lime freely among the apple trees when the fruit was the 

 size of the end of one's thumb. The result seems to indicate the great value 

 in keeping off the codling moths. Let us repeat it and note the result. Mr. 

 Merriman feels confident that common plaster or gypsum will help apples to set 

 and joerfect much good fruit. He throws the plaster all over the trees when in 

 flower, and a few times afterwards. Let us all try it. It will not cost much. 

 No matter how absurd some of these may seem to us, let not that prevent a 

 fair trial. 



Will Potatoes or Other Plants Run Out? 



Some very interesting experiments on this subject have been going on for the 

 past eight years at the College. Some varieties have degenerated and run out 

 entirely, although the soil was well enriched. For details see the report of the 

 horticultural department on page 111 of this volume. 



Changing Seeds. 



Popular opinion in many parts of the country favors a change of seed from 

 one farm or from one county or State to another. 



To improve or infuse new vigor into varieties (or races I should more properly 

 call them) I propose in case of corn and some other seeds to get seeds from 

 remote parts where it has been grown for some years, and plant near each other 

 and mix them. Since making the above notes (the idea was original with myself) 

 I have been delighted in readnig a review of Darwin's new work on Fertiliza- 

 tion of Plants. The reviewer in the Gardener's Chronicle says: " The advan- 

 tages of cross-fertilization depend on the ancestors of the parent plants having 

 been exposed to different conditions, or from their having been intercrossed 

 with individuals thus exj^osed. Thus is justified that common practice with 

 horticulturists of obtaining seeds from diffei'ent localities, and which have 

 grown under different conditions, so that the error and evil consequences of 

 raising plants for a long succession of generations under the same conditions 

 may be avoided. With all species which freely intercross by the aid of insects 

 or of 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 blend- 

 ing of their whole organizations^ and with no loss of purity to the variety, and 

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

 The good results of such crossing will last for several years, though most appar- 

 ent the first year. 



The changing of seed from one kind of soil to another sometimes reems to 

 be of great advantage, but just the rules or laws which govern this change have 

 not been discovered. To some extent it is practicable for every farmer to 

 receive benefit from this at once. Buy seeds of peas, beans, corn, etc., in each 

 case of the same variety, but buy them from different sources, and mix them 

 for sowing for seed. 



The yield of seeds by crossing in different ways is shown in the following 

 tables, which will well repay careful study. 



