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IMPORTANCE OF A JUDICIOUS SELECTION OF SEED. 
BY THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
Through the medium of an essay read before the Agricultural and 
Mechanical Association of Gadsden County, Fla., by the Hon. C. H. 
Dupont, I desire to impress upon the farmers and planters of the 
country the great importance of a proper selection of seed. The essay 
is given in a plainuess of language and with a force of expression which 
must command the assent of every reader, and perhaps induce the 
practice of what is so sensibly enforced. The planter is apt to conclude 
that selection gives too much trouble; but that trouble is the work of 
the farm, and what work can be so profitable? But there is another 
injuvetion which should accompany the precepts of this valuable essay: 
that crops of grain, cotton, or tobacco must be rotated by grass, peas, 
rye, or other vegetable crop turned into the ground. It is one of the 
provisions of nature, that the growing product of the soil itself is essen- 
tial to its continued life and powers of reproduction. While artificial 
manures and mercantile stimulants may force production for a time, 
their ultimate consequence, without the additipn of growing vegetation, 
is debility and death. 
The following is Mr. Dupont’s essay: 
Tt is a law of physical nature, as universally applicable to the vegetable as to the 
animal kingdom, that ‘like produces like.” The recognition of the law is not merely 
theoretical or speculative; it is of universal acceptance, and its existence has been at- 
tested by long experience and the most critical observation. The judicious stock-raiser 
gives his testimony as to his belief in its existence when he consents to pay fabulous 
prices for what he denominates “pure blood,” whether it be of horses, cattle, sheep, or 
swine. So universal is this belief among mankind, that he would be set down as a 
fool or a madman who should essay to rear a first-class racer or trotter from anything 
short of a ‘‘thorough-bred” on the side of both sire and dam. 
It may, however, be asked, if this be a law—fixed, absolute, and universal—how 
happens it that differences in color, form, power of endurance, and fleetness almost 
invariably exist between the individual produce of the same sire and dam; and this 
query may be propounded as an argument to establish an exception, which is contrary 
to the essential quality of a “ law,” the idea and definition of the same being fixedness 
and universality. But the querist gains no aid to his doubt when he is informed that 
there is another law governing the procreation of all animals, which is denominated 
“breeding back.” It is established beyond all cavil, by the experience of the most 
critical observers, that where there exists the slightest taint of blood in the original 
stock, although it may have lain dormant for several generations, yet in the course of 
time it will be apt to show itself in some individual of the family. This is particu- 
larly observable in the breeding of that noblest of the lower animals, the horse, and 
if credit is to be accorded to the statements of some of the most reliable medical au- 
thors, even man himself is not exempt from the operation of this latter law. Well- 
attested cases are cited, where the taint of African blood, after laying dormant for two 
or three generations, has at last exhibited itself in some member of the family by a 
marked development of all the physical characteristics of that particular race. A little 
reflection will lead to the conclusion that these differences in the progeny, so far from 
impinging on the law as laid down, only add strength to the announcement of its uni- 
versal existence. 
But these differences may arise from causes other than a taint of blood in the orig- 
inal stock. It isa plausible supposition that in the matter of color, this may be greatly 
influenced by the imagination at the instant of procreation; as to the other differences 
named, they are beyond the scrutiny of human observation. Much doubtless is depend- 
ent on the condition of the parents in point of bodily health and vigor, and not a little 
on the after rearing of the progeny. That differences in the qualities of the progeny 
of the same parents do exist is undeniable, but that these differences constitute excep- 
tions, which so weaken the rule as to deprive it of the essential qualities of a law, is 
not admitted. Hence, then, the very great care observed by the raisers of blooded 
