* 5 o THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



placed on a single event by the sporting fraternity ; and since 

 the results will affect the pockets of millions of men, there is 

 little wonder that the world is watching the progress and 

 awaiting the outcome with the most eager interest. 



In roots and fruits, but more particularly in the latter, size 

 is often striven for and attained. There have been developed 

 gooseberries which are as large as cherries, cherries as large 

 as small plums, and plums a variety from which the prune 

 is made which are six times as large as a corresponding 

 French variety. As for seedlessness, we already have the 

 seedless apple, the seedless orange, the seedless grape, the 

 seedless plum and the seedless tomato. Now that the start 

 has been made and the principles are thoroughly understood, 

 it would be unsafe to deny that any of our edible fruits may 

 be rendered seedless. A seedless peach is not beyond the pos- 

 sibilities. 



Kaffir corn, which was introduced only a few years ago 

 into Kansas, now adds $6,000,000 a year to the income of the 

 farmers of that state alone. This plant, as well as the Tur- 

 kestan alfalfa, have not yet become common crops upon one- 

 fourth of the farms of the country, and may therefore be 

 listed as new varieties, though not in the sense of many of 

 which we have made mention in some of the preceding para- 

 graphs. They are just widely enough cultivated to show what 

 new varieties mean to the farmers of the country wherever 

 an intelligent husbandry is the common practice, for they have 

 already added millions upon millions of dollars to the wealth 

 of such communities. Untold millions more are yet to be the 

 result of other varieties of vegetation now being introduced : 

 the Russian field pea and the hair)' vetch, so valuable as a 

 forage crop in the South ; the Khiva Winter muskmelon ; the 



