SELECTION OF THE BEST SEED. 269 



bushels of grain to the acre. Oats have also been equally 

 improved up to a weight of 50 Ibs. to the bushel, the growth 

 of mangels has been brought up to a weight of 60 or 70 Ibs. 

 to the root, and a yield of 120 tons per acre. The improve- 

 ment of farm and garden vegetables has been ecjfaally con- 

 spicuous, while the success of the florists has been most re- 

 markable in the improvement of flowering plants 



This selection of seed is one of the secrets of the success- 

 ful growth of crops by the best farmers who know how to 

 avail themselves of it and to profit by it. But it is to be 

 done with judgment. The effects of climate are to be con- 

 sidered. Some crops succeed best in a cool climate; others 

 in a warmer one. Oats reach a weight of 55 Ibs. the meas- 

 ured bushel iii'Scotland and Ireland where along cool sea- 

 son of growth favors the development of the plant. Potatoes 

 yield 600 bushels per acre under ordinary cultivation in 

 the mountain region of North Carolina and Tennessee; while 

 in Nova Scotia the yield is but little less. Wheat reaches 

 a weight of 66 Ibs. to the bushel in Dakota, and contains a 

 much larger quantity of gluten than the average. Hence 

 seed that is brought from these localities reproduce their 

 peculiarities elsewhere, and continue to do so for some time; 

 the continuance being proportionate to the care given to the 

 cultivation of the crop until the influence of climate pre- 

 vails or by persistence a new and better type is fixed. 



All these considerations are of great importance. They 

 show how man by intelligent direction can change natural 

 forces to a large extent for his own advantage. And it is 

 an encouraging fact, to impel effort in this direction, that it 

 is the destiny of mankind to possess the earth ; to have do- 

 minion over the soil of it and all its products; and to re- 

 plenish it and develop all its possibilities by the best culti- 

 vation of its products as far as his physical power and his 

 intelligence permit him. 



The term "sporting" has been used in reference to the 

 self variation of wheat, upon a previous page. This term 

 is used to express a natural variation from the original type 

 without any apparent cause; a sportive fancy of the plant 



