644 



FARMERS' RE G I S T E R 



[No. U 



At ibe time, I made no notes of the experiment, j why then should the matter be suliered to reel 

 and of course cannot be perlecily acuraie in my i where it doos! 



elatemcnls ; but yet I shall not vary lav from the Iti order to hrinp the subject of selecfing seed 

 truth. Tiie plant on which the experiment was with great care, because the offspring will p;triuke 

 tried, was the species of bean called inTliorburn's 1 of ihe character of the seed from which ii springs, 

 catalogue, "refugee or thousand-lo-one bean," an j and also lo point out some of the precauiions lo be 

 excellent species of snap. Hnving selecied a row i observed in order to do this successJiilly, let me re- 

 of beans at the time when they were first settiuir, lerioajact stated in one of the back numbers of 



on one half ol' the row, I suflered those pods which 

 set first to ripen, carefully removing those which 

 Bet afterwards; on the other half of the r"w, I 

 removed all the first pods as liist as they set, leav- 

 ing none but two or three ot the last that set to ri- 

 pen. Wlien lully ripe, the two varieties were 

 gathered and carefully kept seperaie from each 

 other. The next spring 1 planted both varieties 

 at the same time, and side by side, but no two dif- 

 ierent species of beans could have diHered more 

 from each other than these did. The first variety 

 were fit for use at least three weeks before the 

 others ; the plants ol' the first were low and stiff, 

 tvhilst those of the other were tall and slender, in 

 one or two instances having something the appear- 

 ance of vines; the beans when ripe differed in 

 shape, size, and even in color ; those of the earlj- 

 variety being pink, whilst those of the late variety 

 were deep purple. But the greatest difference was 

 in the amount of the yield, the early variety aver- 

 aging from 6 to 10 pods to each plant, whilst the 

 other variety averaged, I think, at least from 30 to 

 40. And yet each variety preserved the original 

 characteristic of the refugee bean, viz. that of hav- 

 ing a tender pod, and thus affinrding a good snap 

 bean. Had not circumstances prevented, I should 

 have pursued this experiment, and from the results 

 which I did obtain, I have no doubt, that 'in the 

 course of a lew j^ears I should have obt;;ined two 

 entirely distinct varieties, one of which would have 

 afforded the earliest snap bean which could be 

 raised, though its yield would have been by no 

 means abundant, and this, by the way. is the fact 

 with respect to every variety of early beans and 

 peas that I have ever seen, whilst the other would 

 have afforded a late snap, and yielded most abun- 

 dantly. Just how far other plants might be affected 

 by a similar treatment i am ut/able losay; but if the 

 general principle which I have stated be correct, 

 and it is a principle based upon the results ol many 

 experiments, perlbrmed on many different kinds of 

 plants, and by many different experiiT;enls, every 

 plant will be affected to a greater or less extent, 

 and doubtless all to such an extent as to materially 

 affect their value. Very often, the seed of early 

 and late varieties, or of some prolific variety of a 

 plant; is obtained ft'om a distant part ofthe country, 

 with great trouble and at great expense, and after 

 all, is found not to succeed well in our climate ; 

 would it not be a much easier and in every respect 

 a much better plan, to select some variety which 

 possesses all the qualities excepting iho.-^e of boing 

 prolific early or late, and then obt:nn varieties 

 which shall be what we wish them in iliis respect, 

 by such means as those referred to above? I know 

 that some larmers have given a certain amount 

 of attention to this matter, but I doubt whether 

 those who have given most attention to it, have 

 ever pursued the matter as far as it might profitably 

 be [mrsued. The results have in every instance 

 been of the most desirable kind, and this method 

 seems to be one of the easiest and moi^^t certain 



the Register. In the No. lor Oct. 1838, there is the 

 Ibllowing article. 



" JNlany years ago, a farmer in this quarter, who 

 cultivated the same variety of wheat and in the 

 same manner as did his neiglibors, was known 

 lo have a yield of a third more to the acre. Upon 

 inquiring as to the cause, ihe unsatistacioiy an- 

 swer was given — "I sow barrel seed.'- The 

 neighbors purchased of him their seed wheat, 

 and the first year had a yield enual lo his, but 

 selecting tlieir seed as formerly, the second and 

 third crops were but little if any better, than was 

 raised by them previous to their purchase of seed. 

 They again purchased, and their Iburih crop was 

 equal to the first, but their fifth and sixth crops, 

 were like their second and third. How to solve 

 this apparent mystery, caused many a neighbor- 

 hood consultation and discussion. The vender of 

 the seed saw too inviting a pros[)ect to make money 

 from the sale of seed wheat to induce him to dis- 

 close the manner of its preparation, and he strug- 

 gled to keep it concealed. It was ultimately dis- 

 covered however, and was as Ibllows. VVhen 

 you are ready to get out your wheat, place a bar- 

 rel or box in your stack-yard, open at one end, 

 before you pass the bundle to the treading floor, 

 <rive it one or two strokes a cross the open end of 

 the barrel or box, by vvliich the best matured 

 grains will be shattered off', then winnow and used 

 lor seed. Thus prepared it will be far superior lo 

 the seed prepared by running it through a coarse 

 sieve, fbrii is known to every observant farmer, that 

 many of the largest grains of both w-heai and rye 

 are unripe or diseasecl, and yet they do not shatter 

 out as easily as those which are perfiectly ripe." 



Taking these statements as true, and I see no 

 reason to doubt their correctness, let us see what 

 a careful attention to this matter will be worth to 

 the wheat grower, counted in dollars and cents. 

 Seed wheat selected in this way would cost him 

 nothing more than the price ofthe labor necef-snry 

 to strike the bundles upon the barrel, before pass- 

 ing them to the thrashing machine, above the 

 price of as much wheat measured without any se- 

 lection from his whole crop. Let us put this at 10 

 dollars, and this I am certain is five times as much 

 as it would cost. If his ordinary crop is 1000 bush- 

 els, by pursuing this plan, with the same amount 

 of labor and from the same quantity oi' land, he 

 will obtain 1333-^ bushels. Estimating tliis at ^1 

 per bushel, the market price as given in the last 

 number of ihe Register, we have 



Crop by improved cultivation worth $1333-^- 

 Crop by ordinary cultivation worth lOOO' 



Gain 

 Deducting price of labor m selecting 

 seed - . - . 



Clear gain $ 323| 

 if his ordinary crop is one of 5000 bushels, his 

 clear gain will of course be 1616§ dollars. About 

 methods ofimprovemeni open to the agriculturist; this calculation there can be no error, if the data 



