262 THE CULTURE OF FARM CROPS. 



length; the only way in which the growth of a perennial 

 plant is elongated being at the extremities of the branches 

 and from the terminal buds. Then the work of the year 

 being finished, vegetation rests and slumbers until the re- 

 newed warmth of the sun in the returning spring awakens 

 it, and life once more starts into full and vigorous action. 



The seed, we have seen, bears a specific character. It is 

 the product of a plant having marked and special charac- 

 teristics and habits. Plants of the same species always pro- 

 duce like seeds, and their seeds produce always within 

 slight variations the same kinds of plants in every respect. 

 A wheat plant always produces wheat; the seed may vary 

 to some slight extent, but it is w r heat, and never barley, oats, 

 or corn. And a grain of wheat always produces a w r heat 

 plant, and never oats or any other plant. Thus the common 

 belief that under some unfavorable circumstances a wheat 

 seed may produce a plant of chess, or a wheat plant may 

 change to a chess plant, which is an entirely distinct and 

 different species, is as impossible as that a cow under un- 

 favorable circumstances might change into or produce a 

 sheep or a rabbit. It is fortunate that the increase and 

 spread of accurate knowledge and of intelligence among 

 farmers is such, that these and other delusions are fast dis- 

 appearing; for they mislead and confuse farmers in their 

 work, and induce them to suppose that freaks of nature are 

 responsible for the results of their own mismanagement, and 

 that the poor yields of crops may be caused by circumstances 

 beyond their control. To some extent this may be true; 

 but it is equally true that the well managed crops grown by 

 intelligent and careful farmers never, or rarely, suffer in the 

 ways which those of the careless unskillful and ignorant 

 farmer do; and that the rigors of the season are destructive 

 mostly to the crops ill put in; in poor soil; and in defiance 

 of all the best methods of culture. The cultivation of farm 

 crops is successful only when it is carried on under rules 

 and practices based upon the laws and facts hereinbefore 

 described and explained; and when it is thus carried on its 

 results are as certain as those of natural laws in other re- 



