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THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE 



THE Seeding operations will be- 



WALL STREET come general within the next 

 FARMERS weeks. It is to be feared that 



a large majority of the farmers 

 will, as usual, give little or no attention to the selection 

 of seed. Yet it has been demonstrated that a careful 

 selection of seed would add hundreds of millions of dol- 

 lars to the total value of the crops. 



Burbank has said that if a variety of wheat were de- 

 veloped capable of producing one more kernel to the 

 head, it would mean an addition of 15,000.000 bushels to 

 our wheat crop. It is possible to do much more than 

 that. At the Minnesota station a wheat selected for ten 

 years, on the principles of Hallett, the English physi- 

 ologist, yielded 25 per cent, more than the parent variety. 

 Applied to the crop of 1912, that increase would have 

 amounted to 185,000,000 bushels, worth $140,000,000. 

 Again and again it has been shown that by hybridization 

 and seed selection varieties of wheat can be developed 

 to meet local conditions of soil and climate ; while the 

 gluten content can be increased by the same means. 



It has been officially stated that our average yield of 

 corn could be easily doubled. Seed selection alone would 

 accomplish wonders. After exhaustive tests the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture says that by merely testing the in- 

 dividual ears of seed corn and rejecting those of low 

 vitality, an average gain of nearly 14 per cent, could be 

 secured. It is an easy matter to test seed corn ; and last 

 year that increase would have amounted to 437,000,000 

 bushels, with a farm value of $213,000,000. What would 

 it amount to if every farmer raised his seed corn with 

 the same care and skill that is given to the breeding of a 

 trotting horse? 



A strain of barley has been developed in Wisconsin 

 that last year was 6j^ bushels ahead of the average 

 vield. That increase on the entire acreage of last season 

 Would have been worth $27,000,000. We plant 37,000,- 

 000 acre? to oats and get an average yield of less than 

 thirty bushels, when more could be obtained. The ten- 

 year average yield of potatoes is 92.7 bushels per acre. 

 Maine has produced as high as 220 bushels. A potato 

 will reproduce, not like itself, but like the nest or hill it 

 came from. Vet little attention is paid to selection which 

 could increase production 50 per cent. When 3,500,000 

 acres are planted, what a shameful waste ! 



Cotton planters should know that their salvation lies 

 in their power to increase the yield and improve the 

 quality. The expert in charge of cotton breeding in the 

 Department of Agriculture says: "By a system of selec- 

 tion and breeding, loth yield and quality could be greatly 

 raised. As an estimate of the advantage to be gained 

 annuallv, $200 OCO TOO is not unreasonable." 



There is no easier way for the farmers to add a bil- 

 lion dollars a yeir to their product than by a careful 

 system of seed selection and breeding. Are our farmers 

 forever to la^ behind 'he rest of the country in scientific 

 production, — ^^'all Street Journal. 



How the raw sap travels from 



DISTRIBUTION the absorbing roots beneath the 



OF SAP rround to the topmost twig on 



an oak or elm tree, more than 



one hundred feet above, and to nearly four or five times 



that height in the case of snnie of the mammoth gum trees 



(eucalyptus) of the Tasn^n-:an forests, and in the gigantic 



\\'ellingtonia of California, has long puzzled the physicist 

 to explain. 



The old idea, says a writer in the Strand, that capil- 

 larity is the factor at work, the fluid being conveyed up 

 the trunk and branches after the manner of oil through 

 the wick of a lamp, becomes an altogether inadequate 

 explanation. Especially is this so when we realize that 

 in some of the internal tissues of the stem the pressure 

 exerted reaches from eight to twenty atmospheres, or, 

 in other words, from one hundred and twenty to three 

 hundred pounds to the square inch — a force greater than 

 that in the boiler of a normal railway engine. 



This mighty pressure, scattered more or less irregu- 

 larly through the tissues of the tree, drives the sap to the 

 buds and forces them open, expands their leaves, and is 

 continually at work wherever the process of building new 

 structures is going on. It is obvious, therefore, that 

 the engineering arrangements for the conducting and 

 controlling of this powerful stream of life-giving sap 

 must be very perfectly organized. 



Indeed, they are more than that ; they present marvels 

 of mechanical construction which are not only astonish- 

 ing on account of their perfection, but are so minute 

 that man can only penetrate the mysteries and beauty of 

 their structure by means of high power microscopes ana 

 careful chemical investigations. Even then he is left 

 baffled and wondering. 



Congress is being severelv 

 THOSE FREE criticized over its failure to dis- 

 SEEDS. continue the practice of free 



seed distribution ; this year's ap- 

 propriation providing $257,000 for that purpose. 

 While this expenditure in the face of it does seem 

 an injustice to those engaged in merchandizing seeds, 

 there also appears to be some logic in the argument of 

 some of the law makers, who argue that the amount 

 of seed distributed freely to the average individual is 

 barely sufficient to "whet his appetite" and makes him a 

 future buyer of seeds. "Once tried always used" is not 

 an axiom that can be applied to free seeds, for failure re- 

 sults so frequently from their use that the grower soon 

 becomes willing to pay for reliable seeds. The story is 

 told of a citizen of \\'ashington who, after buying a small 

 plot of ground, felt that his influence ought to entitle him 

 to a free garden, so he secured the "congressional" seeds 

 and then sought the advice of a gardener friend how to 

 best plant. It was suggested that he use a package of 

 zinias obtained, along a border to get a good effect. In 

 time he reported to his friend the gardener that about the 

 only thing growing were the border plans and that they 

 were making big leaves. The gardener, inquisitive, 

 visited the plot and discovered the zinia seed was produc- 

 ing beets. However, the interest of the amateur was 

 aroused enough to make another attempt with his own 

 bought seeds. An instance in the writer's own family 

 may be told of a ten-year-old son who started sowing 

 seeds obtained from his school at a cent a package. As 

 might be expected, failure resulted in most of the sowing, 

 but the little chap was not discouraged and wanted to try 

 again. Last year reliable seeds were secured from the 

 seedsman and he met with success, the outcome of it 

 being that much of his winter months have been spent 

 planning his next garden. 



