150 SOWING, PLANTING, ETC. 



is taken to raise it in the highest perfection and purity. 

 In general, seeds should be preferred which were raised 

 on a soil poorer than that where they are to bo sown. 



479. When both soil and climate are favorable, the 

 necessity of frequent change may be avoided by good 

 cultivation, and by taking the seeds from the best and 

 most vigorous plants, when they are fully ripe, and drying 

 and preserving them properly. Where this can be done 

 without danger of deterioration, it is far better, since the 

 farmer knows better what he is to sow. Where the species 

 of plants cultivated are very similar to each other, and 

 liable to hybridization or mixture, care must be taken to 

 keep them so far separated as to preserve their purity. 



480. The maxim that &quot; Like produces like,&quot; so well 

 known among farmers, may be true to some extent in 

 regard to most of the cultivated plants of the farm, but 

 we constantly see instances where the fruit of the plant 

 which grows from a seed, is different from that of the 

 plant which produced the seed sown ; very common 

 examples of this change are seen in the apple and other 

 fruits, and the potato when raised from the seed. In our 

 common cultivated grains, the difference, if there is any, 

 is slight. 



481. In a large field of wheat, a few specimens might 

 be found among the millions of plants, which would differ 

 from the seed planted. By carefully selecting these and 

 planting them by themselves, new varieties may be 

 obtained and preserved distinct. 



482. So by taking care to select our seed corn from the 

 cars which ripen earliest, we can get early varieties. If 

 we choose seeds from the largest ears, and plant them by 

 themselves, we shall obtain large varieties; and many 

 persons think that if we take our seeds from those plants 



