36 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [l 



means of which unlikeuesses arise, and then by the se- 

 lection of seeds from the most coveted plants. Even at 

 the present day, there is comparatively little plant - 

 breeding. The cultivated flora has come up with man, 

 and if it has departed immensely from its wild proto- 

 totypes, so has man. The greater part of all this has 

 been unconscious and unintended on man's part, but it 

 is none the less real. 



As an illustration of how large the factors of unde- 

 signed choice and selection are in the amelioration of 

 the domestic flora, let me ask your attention to the bat- 

 tle of the seed-bags. In the year 1890 the census rec- 

 ords show, for the first time, the numbers of acres in 

 the United States devoted to the growing of seeds. I 

 give the acreage of three representative crops, and these 

 figures I have multiplied by the average seed -yields per 

 acre, in order to arrive at an approximate estimate of the 

 entire crop produced, and the number of acres which 

 the crop would plant. I have used low averages of 

 yields in order to be on the safe side, and I have like- 

 wise used liberal averages of the quantity of seed re- 

 quired to plant an acre when making up the last column : 



Acres in Average yields Approximate 



seed-crops. per acre. crop of seeds. Would plant. 



Cabhage .... 1,268 200 lbs. 2.i3,600 lbs. 1,014,400 acres. 



Cucumber .... 10,219 120 " 1,226,280 " 613,140 " 



Tomato . . . 4,356 80 " 368,480 " 1,473,920 " 



The last column in this table has particular interest, 

 because it shows the enormous acreage which these 

 seeds, if all planted, would cover. We are now curious 

 to know if such areas really are planted to these species, 

 and if they are not, it will be pertinent to inquire what 

 becomes of the seeds. Unfortunately, we have no sta- 

 tistics of the entire acreages of these various truck - 

 garden crops, but the same census gives the statistics of 



