THE WHEAT CULTUKIST. 281 



parsnip seed, the first ripe pods of beans, peas, or other 

 leguminous plants, and the first ripe pods of turnip seed, 

 if selected carefully every year, will effect a very desir 

 able improvement in the crop, both in its excellence as 

 to quantity and quality, as well as in the period of early 

 maturity. But by planting the half-ripe and late seed 

 the crop will degenerate very rapidly. 



By planting only a small part of the seed-end of pota 

 toes for several successive seasons where they will receive 

 the best of cultivation, a kind of potato may be pro 

 duced that will be fit to dig several weeks before those 

 potatoes would mature that are treated in the usual way. 

 These considerations hold good concerning the entire 

 vegetable kingdom ; and the young farmer may avail 

 himself of very great advantages arising from them, if 

 he will commence in good time. By saving the first 

 ripe seed from year to year, all our early vegetables and 

 grain have been brought to their present excellence ; and 

 if the first ripe seed be not carefully saved from year to 

 year, we cannot reasonably expect our crops will ripen 

 early, nor remunerate us for the labor bestowed in their 

 cultivation. 



SUGGESTIONS ABOUT SEED WHEAT. 



No farmer can reasonably expect to raise a bountiful 

 crop of superior wheat from inferior seed, even if his soil 

 be well adapted to the production of this kind of cereal 

 grain, having been fertilized and cultivated in the most 

 thorough manner. The legitimate tendency of every 

 seed possessing vitality, in the vegetable as well as in 

 the animal kingdom, is to produce others like itself; and 

 it is not a common occurrence for animals to beget, or 



