January 8, 1910 



HORTICULTURE 



59- 



UNIFORMITY OF VARIETAL 



CHARACTER IN GARDEN 

 VEGETABLES. 



{Continued from page 70) 



develop into plants which shall be as 

 uniform as possible in habit, season 

 of maturity and character of market 

 product. The importance as a factor 

 upon which profit is dependent of ab- 

 solute uniformity of varietal character 

 in all the plants of any particular cul- 

 ture is far greater than is generally 

 recognized. We think we do not ex- 

 aggerate in the least when we say that 

 in the case of most cultures of vege- 

 tables, if all or even 90 per cent, of 

 the plants were as nearly alike the 

 ideal plant of the sort as are the best 

 20 per cent, of them, the actual profit 

 of the culture would be increased 25 

 per cent, and often a gi-eat deal more. 

 Uniformity in habit of plant and char- 

 acter of market products lessens the 

 cost of cultivation as it permits of the 

 different cultural opei'ations being 

 done at the exact time when they 

 would be most beneficial to all of the 

 plants. Lessens the cost of harvest- 

 ing and marketing the crop for sim- 

 ilar reasons. Increases the value of 

 the iModuct. In most of our markets 

 uniformity in the contents of a packet 

 is a most important factor in deter- 

 mining the relative price it will com- 

 mand. The addition of sujierior speci- 

 mens, if they be of dilferent varietal 

 character, will lessen rather than add 

 to sale value of a package. 



I have often asked experienced cul- 

 tivators what would it be worth to 

 you if every plant in the field was lil<e 

 these, pointing to some five or six 

 plants which were much alike and 

 very good, though by no means the 

 best that could be found, and have 

 been answered, "If I could grow a 

 field of cabbage, oi- a house of lettuce 

 every plant jvst lilce those I would 

 soon be rich enough to quit worl;," or 

 words to that effect. Sometimes dif- 

 ferences in the real value of plants 

 in the same culture are due to un- 

 avoidable or unintended differences in 

 the sowing of the seed, or in the 

 handling of the plants; often we have 

 seen difl'erences in the same culture 

 sufficient to result in profit or loss, re- 

 sulting from the sewing the seed just 

 before or after a slight shower, though 

 on the same day. Again, one can 

 often see all through the season a dif- 

 ference in the rows of plants handled 

 by different workmen. I have known 

 of at least one case where the mere 

 altering of the "hang" of the culti- 

 vator used in the last cultivation of a 

 field of beans resulted in a loss of over 

 20 per cent, in the bulk of the crop, 

 and even a greater difference in the 

 apiiearance of the sample. 



When we consider the difficulty of 

 finding two plants, or even two flowers 

 of the same plant which are exactly 

 alike even in external form, we must 

 recognize the probability that plants 

 in whch the active and potential vari- 

 ant tendencies exist in exactly the 

 same proportionate strength are even 

 more rare. 



No two seedling plants can ever be 

 precisely alike; they are very rarely 

 even as much alike as are plants pro- 

 pagated by division, but it is quite 

 possible and practical to grow seed 

 every grain of which will develop into 

 plants more alike than is the case 



with most of the vegetable seed now 

 used. 



Conditions Which Cause Variation. 



Every seed carries within itself a 

 multitude of potential variations in- 

 herited in different degrees of in- 

 tensity from each of its- ancestors back 

 for an indefinite number of genera- 

 tions; some of these variant tenden- 

 cies though quite as distinct as those 

 which distinguish varieties may lie 

 dormant without any apparent influ- 

 ence over the external form of the 

 plant, yet they do not cease to exist 

 and through the influence of the pol- 

 len of some other plant, changed ex- 

 ternal conditions, or other cause, may 

 become active and dominant in some 

 individual seed, and bring about in it 

 a new combination and balance of in- 

 tli.ences resulting in a radical change 

 of varietal character. Each generation 

 of the same combinations of variant 

 tendencies lessens the probability of 

 a new combination and consequent ex- 

 ternal change. 



The general proposition that a seed 

 will develop into a plant like the one 

 that produced it is so commonly ac- 

 ce]ited that we have such sayings as, 

 "like produce like," etc., and with 

 most gardeners the sight of a ])lant 

 of special merit creates a desre for 

 some of its seed; there are, however, 

 many conditions which may result in 

 a seed developing into a plant very 

 different from that which produced it. 

 First, there is always the possibility, 

 even with plants whose flowers are 

 generally self-fertilant, that any par- 

 ticular seed may have developed as 

 the result of cross fertilization and in 

 this way inherit quite different variant 

 tendencies, or in very diilerent pro- 

 portionate power from those of the 

 lilant upon which it grew. Ths may 

 be true even it the staminate plant 

 seems practically identical with the 

 seed producing one, for in it there 

 may be a different balanc'e of variant 

 influence having its origin in diiler- 

 ences in ea"rlier generations. There is 

 also the possibility that the producing 

 plant may owe its superiority to tlie 

 cross fertilization of quite distinct 

 plants, but does not itself show any 

 evidences of such crossing though 

 they may appear in subsequent gener- 

 ations. 



Some Facts Concerning Inherited 

 Tendencies. 



Tlie balance between the multitude 

 ot variant tendencies inherited from 

 different ancestors, and the conse- 

 quent character of the plant itself is 

 very seldom fully established, often it 

 is not even hinted at, in the first gen- 

 eration after the combination; it usu- 

 ally requires a number of generations 

 before this balance is sufliciently set- 

 tled to reveal the full result of the 

 crossing, as the slightest difference in 

 the relative strength of any single 

 variant may, and often does so affect 

 the balance of influence as to result in 

 a material change in the character of 

 the plant and of the seed it will pro- 

 duce. We can then only predict with 

 certainty the exact character of the 

 plant which any seed will develop into 

 in proportion as we know not only 

 that the seed itself has not been influ- 

 enced by pollen from plants different 

 from the one that produced it, but 

 that all of the ancestors of the produc- 

 ing plant back for as many genera- 

 tion? as possible have been of pre- 



cisely the same combination and bal- 

 ance of variant tendencies. We think 

 the fact that the effect of an accidental 

 or intended crossing often, we may 

 say generally, does not show at least 

 in its full force until the second or 

 third generation is of great import- 

 ance, but it is often overlooived ; and 

 we imagine we have a pure plant of a 

 distinct type when in reality it is a 

 cross, and certain to show its mixed 

 origin in later generations. 



Some Causes of Disappointment. 



In common practice men save seed 

 of some especially pleasing and perfect 

 plant with little regard to the sur- 

 rounding ones, if they are only of the 

 same sort; or to the character of the 

 ancestors of the plant they admire and 

 when they sow this seed by itself and 

 get plants like the parent plant they 

 are delighted, and think they have a 

 pure strain, only to be disappointed 

 the next year. This is the history of 

 many a seedsman's novelty which was 

 introduced in good faith, and with 

 high hopes that at last he had a really 

 superior stock, for the original plant 

 was almost peifect; its seed was care- 

 fully saved and planted where there 

 was no probability of mixing; the 

 plants thus produced were uniformly 

 good, but alas, in I he next crop of 

 seed some tendency which had re- 

 raained dormant up to this time comes 

 into power in some of the seeds 

 though not in others, and the stock 

 has lost its seeming uniformity and 

 value. 



The multiplication of varietal names 

 used by seedsmen is a recognition, 

 though pelhaps an unconscious one, of 

 the value of unilormily in varietal 

 iharacter, for in i ciiuy, man,/ cases a 

 iicv, name is given a certain stock of 

 peed, not because it is distinctly dif- 

 lei-ont in varietal character from some 

 older sort of proven '. alue, but sim.ply 

 t'e<ause a larger proportion of the seed 

 w'ill develop into fairly repi-esentative 

 idants of the soit. Many stocks ot 

 seed sold are so variable that it is dif- 

 ficult to recognize the exact character- 

 istics the name stands for. In prac- 

 tice it not infrequently happens that 

 seed supposed to be of a nev/ variety 

 is sent to two dii''crent grovvem to be 

 jdiiuted for the seed crop, and it is so 

 variable that one grower supposes that 

 one plant is the ideal while the other 

 tiiinks that a very dilferent one was 

 what was wanted, and they each aim 

 to develop a stoc^k which differs from 

 that of the other. The two lots come 

 in to the seedsman, are mixed and sold, 

 and so the variation is increased. 



{To be continued^ 



PHILADELPHIA NOTES. 



The Christmas snow storm caught 

 the Conard & Jones Co. unawares as 

 to coal. By herculean efforts enough 

 to keep going was wallowed through 

 the snow. A small cave-in of a sec- 

 tion of the greenhouse plant was an 

 incident. 



The newspapers of the country 

 have circulated everywhere the news 

 of the trying family affliction and bit- 

 ter distress which has come to that 

 honored representative of the seed 

 trade, Robert Buist of Philadelphia. 

 We extend to him our sincere sym- 

 pathy in this hour of anxiety and 

 humiliation. 



