DEVELOPMENT OF VARIETIES 87 



has sometimes been to lengthen the stem at the expense 

 of the head, until the seed stock becomes run out entirely 

 and is in effect no longer true, modern cabbage seed, since 

 it has partly reverted to the original type. An instance 

 of this occurred in a neighborhood in Nova Scotia, where, 

 for the sake of economy, for a number of years cabbage seed 

 was grown by cutting off the heads and planting out the 

 stumps only, until the stems became nearly two feet long 

 and the heads not much bigger than twice the size of a man's 

 fist. 



The practice of sowing the seed from plants remaining 

 in the garden after the best specimens have been gathered for 

 home use, as often happens, is a very poor one. Under such 

 treatment there is a very general tendency for the stock to 

 degenerate. Where seed is to be saved in a mixed garden, 

 a few hills of plants should be allowed to go to seed for this 

 special purpose, without being picked at all. It is very 

 important to save seed from well-ripened fruits. Very 

 immature seeds will often grow, but they give weak 

 though perhaps early-maturing plants, which are very 

 liable to disease. According to Professor Arthur, it is not 

 the slightly unripe seeds that give a noticeable increase in 

 earliness, but very unripe seeds gathered from fruit (toma- 

 toes) scarcely of full size and still very green. Such seeds weigh 

 scarcely more than two-thirds as much as those fully ripe; 

 they grow readily but lack constitutional vigor. Professor 

 E. S. Goff has made a great number of experiments along 

 this line and remarks that the increase in earliness in 

 tomatoes following the use of very immature seeds, "is ac- 

 companied by a marked decrease in the vigor of the plant 

 and in the size, firmness, and keeping quality of the fruit." 



A few years of careful observation and experience in 

 following out these principles in the breeding of plants 



