THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



51 



of thia particular case, as from its being a link in 

 the greut chain of leslimony in favor of a more 

 humane and improved treatment of diseased 

 swine. 



In Oct. last, I observed that a thrifty young 

 shoal of mine was weaU in tiie back : he grew 

 wor^-e lor several days, until he could ec;;rcely 

 move about, or even get up. At this stage of dis- 

 ease, 1 commenced leeding him with coin, boiled 

 soil in strong lie, with the addition of a handlul 

 of charcoal. This leed was continued four or five 

 days, at wliich time the hog had to all appearances 

 become as well as ever, and so continues to this 

 time. J. D. Hill. 



No. 3d Range, near Bi?igham. 



OF THE PKESERVATIOK OF RACES BY SEED. 



From Lindley's Horticulture. 



The manner of preserving the domesticated 

 races of plants by the ordinary means ol propaga- 

 tion, such as cuttings, layf.rs, grails, and so on, has 

 already been explamed ; there are, however, some 

 other topics connected with this important sulject 

 which require to be touched upon. 



Propagation by division is inapplicable to 

 annuals or biennials, or at least can be practised 

 upon only a very limited scale, and Ibrsuch plants 

 llie gardener has to trust to seeds alone. l>ul il is 

 an axiom m vtgctable physiology that seeds repro- 

 duce the species only, while buds (that is, propa- 

 gation by division) will multiply the variety ; and 

 this is undoubedly true as a general rule. Bulihe 

 skill and care of the gardener often enable him 

 10 perpetuate by seed the many races of cultivat- 

 ed annuals, varieties of the same species, impiov- 

 ed and altered by centuries of domealication, wiih 

 as much certainty as if he were operating with cut- 

 tings. In a well managed larm we see ihe various 

 breeds of turnips and corn preserving each its own 

 peculiar character unchanged year after year, 

 and yet they must all be propagated by eeed . 

 alone ; and m gardens the varieties are innume- 

 rable i)i' peas, lettuces, cabbages, radishes, &c., 

 whose purity is maintained by the same means. 

 The manner in which this is effected is ol the 

 first importance to be understood. 



Although it is the general nature of a seed to 

 perpetuate the species only to which it belongs, 

 and it cannot ihereJore be relied upon, in ordinary 

 cases, to renew a particular variety of the epecius, 

 yet there is always a visible tendency in it to pro- 

 duce a seedling more like its parent than any 

 other form of the species. Suppose, ior example, 

 the seed of a Ribsion pippin apple were sown ; il 

 untainted by intermixture with other varieties, it 

 would produce an apple tree whose fruit would 

 be large, sweet, and agreeable to eat, and nut 

 small, sour, and uneatable, like the wilding apple 

 or crab. The object of the gardener is to fix this 

 tendency, and he does il by means not unlike 

 those employed in the preservation of the races 

 of domesticated animals, namely, by " breeding 

 in and in," as the phrase is. An example of ihis 

 will be more instructive than a dissertation. The 

 radish has, when wild, a long pallid root ; among 

 many seedlings one was remarked with roots 

 shorter and rounder, and more succulent than !he 

 remainder ; this was a " spori" to which all 



plants are sulject. Had that radish been left 

 among its companions, and the seed saved Irom 

 them all indiflcrently, the tendency would have 

 disappeared (or thai time; but its companions 

 were all eradicated, and the belter one produced 

 its seed m solitude. The crop of young plants 

 obtained li-om this radish was, lor the most part, 

 composed of individuals of the wild lorm, but 

 several preserved the same qualities as the parent, 

 and some, perhaps one only, in a higher degree: 

 in this one, then, the tendency was beginning to 

 fix. Again were all eradicated, except the last- 

 mentioned individual, whose seeds were carefully 

 preserved lor the succeeding crop ; and, by a 

 constant repetition of this practice lor many years, 

 at last the habit to produce a round and succulent 

 root became so fixed, that ail the radishes assum- 

 ed ihe same apjjearance and quality, and there 

 were none left to draft or "rogue." Every va- 

 riety of annual crop, not still in its wild stale, 

 must have gone through this process of fixing ; 

 and thus the vaiieties ol earliness, lateness, and 

 productiveness, color, lorm, and flavor, observable 

 in garden plants, have been secured lor our en- 

 joyment. 



But to fix a new habit in annual plants is not 

 the only care ol the cultivator, whose patience 

 and skill would be ill employed if it could not be 

 preserved. If a plant has some tendency to vary 

 lom its original condition, it lias much more to 

 revert to its wild stale ; and there can be no doubt 

 ihat, if the arts of cuhivalion were abandoned lor 

 only a very few years, all the annual varieties 

 ol our gardens would disappear, and be replaced 

 by a lew original wild forms. 



For the means of preserving the races of plants 

 I ure, the means vary according to the nature of 

 the vciriely. As far as concerns early and late 

 varieties, it olten happens that, as in peas, the 

 tendency in such plants to advance or retard their 

 season of ripening was originally connected with 

 the soil or climate in which they grew. A plant 

 which lor years is cultivated in a warm dry soil, 

 where il ripens in loriy days, will acquire habits of 

 great excitability ; and, when sown in another 

 soil, will, lor a season or so, retain its habit of 

 rapid maturity : and the reverse will happen to an 

 annual from a cold wet soil. But, as the latter will 

 gradually become excitable and precocious, if sown 

 Tor a succession of seasons in a dry warm soil, so 

 will the Ibrmer lose those habits and become late 

 and less excitable. Hence, the best seedsmen 

 always take care that iheir early varieties of 

 annuals are procured from warmer and drier lands 

 than those on which they are to be sown ; our 

 earhest peas, lor example, are obtained Irom 

 France, and the next in time of ripening from the 

 hot dry fields of Kent, the Suffolk coast, and 

 similar'pituation?. Thus, also, the barieygrownon 

 sandy soils, in the warmest parts of Englarid, is 

 always lound by the Scotch farmer, when intro- 

 duced into his country, to ripen on his cold hills 

 earlier than his crops of the same kind do, when 

 he uses the seeds of plants which have passed 

 through several successive generations in his cold- 

 er climate ; and Mr. Knight Ibund Ihat the crops 

 of wheal on some veiy high and cold ground, 

 which he cultivated, ripened much earlier when 

 he obtained his seed-corn from a very warm dis- 

 trict and gravelly soil, which lies a few miles die- 

 I tant, (han^when he employed the seed of his vi- 



