264 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



than to select from a field where there are to be found many inferior, or 

 below the type we wish to secure. By these means seed can be secured uni- 

 form in character and in period of maturity. 



SELECTION. 



There is not a field of grain, or of any kind of vegetable, but in which may 

 be found some individual of superior merit. To give this an opportunity to 

 grow is not only the work, but the duty of the plant breeder. It is the only 

 road that will lead him to success; it is direct and certain. Encourage any 

 superior growth ; take it from its humble position and give it a higher one ; 

 minister to the necessities that growth, or development entails, and the results 

 that follow will be proportionate to the eflforts employed. 



Time will not permit of our taking up this order of development in detail, 

 but we cannot rest without calling your attention to an important field in which 

 the seedsman or specialist has a golden opportunity. This field is the sugar 

 beet, grown for seed purposes. 



As before stated, the place to obtain seed is where a given type will, under 

 good cultivation, reach the limit of possibilities. No vegetable should be grown 

 for seed purposes anywhere else. While this rule is an important one in every 

 line, it is doubly so with the sugar beet. 



IS A CHANGE OF SEED NECESSARY? 



Many persons consider a frequent change or removal of seed as an indis- 

 pensible condition to the production of a profitable crop. The necessity of this 

 change is insisted on by both theoretical and practical horticulturists, for rea- 

 sons which they consider conclusive. 



There is a very general impression that a change of "seed" is absolutely 

 necessary for a good crop of potatoes, that if a given variety is grown for a 

 succession of years on the same farm, deterioration, both in quality and quan- 

 \ity, will be the result. This opinion being held by neighbors, it is common 

 practice for them to exchange stocks for planting. Than this, there can be no 

 greater mistake, either in principle or practice. We kuow of farmers who 

 usually get four hundred bushels per acre, or double an ordinary crop, who 

 have not changed, and have used '"seed" of their own saving for the past 

 twenty years. 



Under certain circumstances it is always best to get potatoes for seed pur- 

 poses far from where they are to be planted for the production of a crop. This 

 is particularly true when we have in view earliness of maturity, which, under 

 many circumstances, is a matter of vital importance, as, for instance, where a 

 second crop is to follow, as is the case on Long Island, where a second crop 

 is the rule, rather than the exception, with our intensive system of farming. 

 Seed grown at the extreme Northern point, where the variety will perfect its 

 growth and perfectly mature its seed, will reproduce itself, in our latitude, 

 several days earlier than that of our own production, which makes a second 

 crop possible, where, if seed of our own production were used the result might 

 not follow. 



Our observation has proven most conclusively that it is not profitable to 

 save "seed" from a crop grown from Northern "seed," as they are no earlier 

 the second year, and not so productive. It is, therefore, much better to get 

 seed from the North annually if a second crop is desirable. 



