BEED DIVISION. 55 



stations at Halle and at Leipsic, Germany, go to sliow tlint a larirer, 

 better, and more uniform growth is obtained from large seeds. Tlie 

 superiority is shown in tables of results, in every particular, in height, 

 luxuriance of growth, uniformity, aggregate weight, number of pods, 

 number of seeds produced, weight of seeds, quality of crops ; in fact 

 every desirable characteristic was in favor of the larger seeds. Professor 

 Lebemann, of Munich, Bavaria, has the same results. As to the opin- 

 ion of many farmers that grains of Indian com selected from the middle 

 of tlio ear are better for planting, I am unable to refer to any exact 

 experiments on the subject. 



It is easier to deteriorate a crop by choosing bad seed, or even by 

 carelessly neglecting the selection of good, than it is to improve au 

 already good variety. 



Prof. James Buckman, of the Eoyal Agricultural College, has expori- 

 mented with the seed of malformed and misshapen crop-roots (Trans. 

 Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 18G2, p. 97). lie found that when seeds derived 

 from misshapen turnips and parsnips were used they produced even 

 greater deformities than the parents presented. His conclusions are as 

 follows : ^ 



A degenerate progeny will, as a rule, result from the employment of 

 seed from ba<lly- grown roots, and, besides, the degenerate seed does not 

 produce nearly so large a crop ; and that, by selection, we may produce 

 roots well shaped, and increase the probabilities of producing the best 

 crop. Darwin (Animals and Plants under Domestication, 11,243) cites 

 his authorities for saying that in France, since the cultivation of beets 

 for sugar, the plant has almost exactly doubled its yield of sugar, and 

 this has been effected by careful and systematic selection, the specific 

 gravity of the roots being tested and the best roots saved for seed. 



IMPROVEMENT BY SELECTION AND CULTIVATION. 



"Improvement by selection is adding up, from generation to genera- 

 tion, any special character. Sometimes the character itself, when pushed 

 to excess, becomes a defect. When any variety has been improved up 

 to a certain stage by selection, we reach a point beyond which any fur- 

 ther change in that direction is no longer an improvement ; then wo 

 must use selection to maintain the excellence already achieved. 



" Only the well-developed and fully-matured seed should be used, and 

 the permanent " seed-patch" should be kept up to its original standard 

 of excellence by an ami^le supply of fertilizers, domestic and, if need be, 

 commercial, for it is necessary to give to the parent-stock such a quan- 

 tity of nutritious food as will keep it in good condition and impart to it 

 that healthful vigor so essential to successful propagation. The sce<l- 

 patch and " annual selection " should be handed down by the fanner to 

 his posterity: as an inheritance more valuable than evanescent gohl." 



IMPROVEMENT OF SORGHUM SEED. 



Prof. M. Swenson, of Ottawa, Kans., in an interesting communication 

 to Colraaii'S Itnral World, in the issue of November 5, 1885, says : 



Speaking froiii my own limitecl experience, I am certain tlial tlio sorglium cane is 

 Busceptiblo of very great improvement. Last year I liad a 40-acre field of cane, the 

 juice of which contaiuwl an average of 15| per cent, of cane sugar and but tlireo- 

 fourths per cent, of (jliK'.n~e. and this was almost entirely due to tnorongh cultivation 

 and careful selection of seed. We had yields of cane this year, planted from the same 

 kind of seed, and a ton of one would be worth double that of a ton from the other. 

 This diifereaco was all duo to ditforence in cultivation, and it seems to me that this 



