514 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



kind. There is, therefore, economy in always selecting the best varieties for cultivation, 

 those yielding the best in quality, and the largest amount in quantity, since this course is the 

 most profitable and satisfactory. Farmers should, therefore, take pains to keep themselves 

 informed with respect to the most desirable and improved varieties, and not be left in the 

 background with the cultivators of a past age. We do not mean by this that farmers 

 should discard a good and reliable variety for a new and untried one. simply because some 

 speculative seed-seller loudly trumpets its merits through their special agents, or the medium 

 of exaggerated advertisements. Too many impositions have already been perpetrated upon 

 the farmers of this country in palming off a worthless or inferior article at an exorbitant price ; 

 but when the merits of a really valuable product have been thoroughly tested, and proven to 

 be superior in all respects to the old, it will then be found more profitable to discard the old 

 and adopt the new. We do not intend by this to cast any reflections upon seed-men and 

 gardeners in general. We believe the majority of those engaged in this business to be 

 strictly reliable and honorable in all their business relations. But in this business, as well as 

 all others under the sun, there are impostors, and they have, by their false dealings, shaken 

 the faith of many previously unsuspecting victims, and created a prejudice against adopting 

 the new and untried that is not easily overcome. 



There are those in this business who know nothing whatever of producing or improving 

 what they offer to the public, but buy up, at a* low price, old and worthless or inferior stock 

 that can be found in the market, and then offer it for sale at an exorbitant price, under the 

 claim of rare and special merit. All such impostors should be classed with counterfeiters of 

 all kinds, including the manufacturers of oleomargarine and other food adulterers, and swin 

 dlers generally, and be dealt with according to the penalties of the law. Buying only of 

 well known and reliable parties, will be a safeguard against such frauds. 



Planting a little seed for one or two seasons in a small plot by itself, sufficiently far from 

 all others to prevent mixing, and giving it good cultivation, will be a safe way to test a new 

 variety before planting a large crop, where a knowledge of the experience of reliable parties 

 in planting it cannot be readily obtained. 



Next in importance to obtaining the best variety for seed-production, is that of selecting 

 the most healthy and vigorous plants for this purpose, and these should be grown apart from 

 all others. 



All plants will mix more or less readily with others, when planted with, or sufficiently 

 near other varieties to permit of fertilization from the pollen of their blossoms. Maize or 

 common corn, broom corn, sorghum, millet, will all readily mix with each other, as well as 

 with different varieties of the same species. This mixing or hybridizing will, of course, 

 greatly deteriorate the quality of a choice variety, and should be carefully avoided. The 

 distance to which the pollen may be conveyed by the wind, or by bees or other insects, is 

 almost incredible. It will often happen that in a field of corn, an occasional red, mottled, or 

 blue ear will occur among those of a choice variety of the yellow or white type, the origin 

 of which can be accounted for only in this way. When such cases occur, it will usually be 

 found that in an adjoining field or farm, or at a distance even more remote, the variety that 

 is represented by this mixture will be found to have been grown during the season. The 

 dust of the pollen of blossoms, being exceedingly fine, can be carried quite a distance by the 

 wind. This is seen in the culture of hops, where five or six hills of male plants, being dis 

 tributed at equal distances over an acre in a hop field, and supplied with tall poles for climb 

 ing, by which the fertilizing process may be facilitated, will have a sufficient amount of pol 

 len conveyed over the blossoms of the field by the wind to fertilize the entire acre of plants. 

 Bees are another fruitful cause of the mixing of varieties, their influence extending even 

 beyond that of the wind, by carrying the pollen that adheres to their wings and bodies to dis 

 tant fields while going from one flower to another in pursuit of honey. We therefore see 



