300 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



have been produced and nearly one hundred and fifty 

 varieties, extending all the way from the full-headed 

 kind to the cauliflower. 



In high northern regions the summers are short and 

 the days long, and all kinds of crops grow there faster 

 than in temperate climates, where the days are shorter 

 and the summers longer. 



In south Germany barley will grow and ripen in 

 four and a half to five months; while in Lapland and 

 Finland the same process is accomplished in two months. 



Our common corn, as is well known, in Minnesota 

 has six weeks less time to mature than in Southern 

 Indiana and Kentucky, yet it soon adapts itself to the 

 changed conditions. But if seed were taken from Ken- 

 tucky and planted in Minnesota but few stalks would 

 mature their seed the first year. Perhaps three or four 

 years would be required for it to become perfectly ac- 

 climated. Thus, by easy inference, we see that where 

 it is feared that frost will come too early in the fall 

 it would be wise in the farmer to bring his seed each 

 year from the North, and thus grow a crop which will 

 ripen two or three weeks sooner than the acclimated 

 plants. 



By thoroughly trying experiments like these at our 

 agricultural stations, botany may prove of immense ad- 

 vantage to the farmers of the country. 



But I will not attempt here to show all the relations 

 which botany holds to agriculture. There are a dozen 

 directions in which its lines of useful force operate, and 

 it would be wiser to leave a complete exposition of the 

 subject to the professional botanist, who would bring to 

 the task a richness of knowledge and facility of expres- 

 sion which would place the subject in a much stronger 

 setting than I have been able to give it 



