448 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



foundation of rules in practical agriculture ? In reply I would 

 say : — 



1. Seek with great care for seed of the best varieties of 

 plants, with the expectation that the qualities of the plant will 

 descend. 



2. Take great care in selecting and preserving the seed from 

 your own crops. In this way one of my acquaintances, in the 

 course of twenty-five years, doubled the size of his Tuscarora 

 corn. In this way, Baden in Maryland, obtained his cele- 

 brated corn, on one stalk of which I once saw ten ears. This 

 improvement was accomplished in twenty years by selecting 

 his seed annually from those stalks which bore the greatest 

 number of ears. 



3. When you wish to unite the excellencies of different varie- 

 ties, as size and productiveness, place them near each other, 

 that through the pollen of one flower and the stigma of another 

 flower, they may be influenced to form new varieties. Thus 

 Prince, at Flushing, brought the Spanish chestnut near the 

 chinkapin of our own country, that the pollen of the one 

 might fall into the flower of the other, and thus he obtained a 

 new variety, which had nearly the size of the one and the pro- 

 ductiveness of the other. 



4. When you wish to cultivate a plant whose home is in a 

 southern climate, do not be discouraged because you find a 

 difiiculty in bringing it to perfection in our shorter summers. 

 By perseverance you can hasten the period of maturity. Thus 

 one of my acquaintance, by care, continued through thirty years, 

 hastened the ripening of the Lima bean full two weeks. 



