432 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



new varieties at first so valuable. The quality of the seed will make a wide 

 difference, not only in the quantity, but in the quality of any crop. 

 Seed should not only be good in possessing the power to germinate, for 

 germination by no means insures perfect development, but it should possess 

 the vigor and vitality to give the plant such a start that it may overcome 

 any existing injurious influences, and grow on in full strength to complete 

 development, imparting its own strength to its offspring. A seed may 

 germinate, and yet result in a weak, sickly plant that will give no profitable 

 return, and not only that, but pollen from such a weak plant may convey a 

 degenerating influence to the progeny of neighboring plants that are them- 

 selves vigorous. In order that seed may have this necessary vitality, it must 

 have backing — the backing of vigorous parents, and if this vigor has 

 descended to it through several generations of equally strong ancestors, so 

 much the better. 



The general law that like produces like is as applicable to plants as to 

 animals. Now, in the common practice of seed sowing what are the chances 

 of securing and preserving from season to season those qualities which are 

 most desirable; qualities which best insure profitable returns — vigor and 

 productiveness, together with that form, size, color and chemical composi- 

 tion of product which is most profitable in any particular market. A farmer 

 at seeding time goes to his wheat bin, screens out the required number of 

 bushels of large berries, and is satisfied that he is sowing good seed. A 

 large seed is not necessarily a good seed; size is a good quality, but it 

 should not govern alone. Large seeds may, and are very likely to come from 

 very short heads; they may come from heads that bore a half dozen large 

 berries and the balance very small ones. They may come from a plant pro- 

 ducing few heads, or from a plant possessing small vitality. A large seed 

 may have come from a perfect mother, and still have rolled up in its coats 

 the influence of a sterile or unproductive father. Then here is another 

 point worth considering. Occasionally, through unfavorable atmospheric 

 conditions, extreme drought or excess of rain, a whole crop will lack vitality 

 and be imperfectly developed. Seed from such a crop, if it grow at all, 

 may produce but an inferior crop the next year, no matter how favorable 

 the season. 



Prof. Tracy tells of visiting, a few years ago, forty wheat fields in the 

 neighborhood of Detroit. Thirty-eight of them were poor. Two were good, 

 and he found upon inquiry that on these two fields seed a year old had been 

 used, while on the others seed from the previous crop had been used, and 

 this crop was known to have possessed very little vitality. Similar observa- 

 tions in other portions of the State gave the same results. 



We frequently hear complaints that certain varieties have run out; a 

 variety of wheat for instance, that when first introduced was perfectly hardy, 

 had good stiff straw, and gave a large yield of fine plump berries, has gradu- 

 ally lost these qualities, is no more profitable, and farmers are casting about 

 for a new variety to take its place. Is it at all strange that under the com- 

 mon practice this deterioration has taken place? Let us notice for a 

 moment a few principles that apply to all plant life. All plants, and espe- 

 cially all cultivated plants, have a certain susceptibility to variation. They 

 vary as the conditions of the soil, season and climate to which they are sub- 

 jected vary. Crossing between individuals of the game variety that possess 

 different characters will increase the tendency to vary. Crossing between 



