Ir- ) 44 



THE GENESEE FAEMEE. 



"THE LIMITED DURATION OF VARIETIES OF PLANTS." 



Since our article on this subject was written, tlie Horticulturist contains another from 

 Mr. TowxLEY, whicli the editor of that journal pronounces, not unjustly, "one of the 

 most interesting- it has published." We have read the facts and argument of Mr. T. 

 with close attention, and see no reason to alter the judgment we ventured to express 

 in our last. The questioH is not whether seedlings, and plants, and trees, propagated 

 by buds, will deteriorate, for it is generally conceded that both will, but whether a 

 healthy bud from an aged tree, having equal advantages of soil and climate, may not 

 live as long and do as well as a neiv tree, as one grown from a seed from the tree that 

 produced the bud ? Ilere is an apple tree, itself a seedling, which is on« hundred years 

 old ; and the question to be decided is, what advantages for the production of a new 

 tree have its seed over its buds ? If the vital principle in its buds is feeble from great 

 age, or a want of food, the same is true of its seeds. In cellular structure they arc 

 alike ; and they are alike in composition and function after taldng root in the ground. 



How does it happen that seedling potatoes are subject to the rot as well as those 

 grown from tubers, if the cfleet is confined to the propagation from tubers instead of 

 seeds? We found it impossible to answer this question to our own satisfaction, and 

 hence we doubted the soundness of the "bud theory" altogether. Seedling onions, 

 carrots, and cabbages, often rot prematurely, especially so far south as Georgia. Indeed, 

 they appear to decay there sooner than potatoes, even before carrots and onions are pulled. 

 Had the plants produced from seeds, in starting new races of potatoes, been entirely 

 exempt from the malady, while those cultivated from tubers were subject to it, such 

 evidence would have gone far to show that nature had imparted less vital force to buds 

 than to seeds. But, let seedlings be as long abused, in one form and another, as the 

 tubers of potatoes and other plants have been, and also all fi-uits propagated by buds, 

 and the seedlings so treated would show equal deterioration and proneness to early 

 dissolution. It is better to have no theory at all on the subject of budded and seedling 

 fruit trees, and esculent tubers, than one which, if not evidently erroneous, is more than 

 doubtful. To improve all organic structures, all vital parts, one needs a knowledge of 

 chemistry, anatomy, and physiology, in their application to the living beings whose consti- 

 tutional vigor and enduring powers are to be changed for the better. Without considerable 

 knowledge of the principles of organic chemistry, one cannot duly underetand the relations 

 that earth, air, and water, bear to cultivated plants, fruits, and animals ; and without some 

 acquaintance with their anatomy, some information in reference to the functions of their 

 numerous organs, or their physiology, he cannot operate otherwise than in the dark in 

 feeding his crops, his stock, and in improving his land. A man may produce, after a 

 fashion, the flesh, bones, and feathers, of one hundred fowls or turkeys in a yard, without 

 the remotest idea of the elements which nature demands and consumes in their healthy 

 gTOwth. Empiricism or accident may have given him valuable information on the subject ; 

 but where we meet with one person who really understands the art and science of manufac- 

 turing eggs and poultry in the most economical manner, we find ninety-nine who have the 

 trade to learn. So it is in fruit culture, grain culture, potato culture, and grass culture. 



Never, until farmers are willing to study the laws of nature which govern the 

 organization, and the extension from generation to generation, of the plants and animals 

 which they labor to produce, can they make substantial progress in their profession. 

 The intelligent reader knows how little has been done in the LTnited States to foster the 

 critical study of every department of agriculture and horticulture. AYe depend on 

 LouDEx, Knight, Lixdley, Liebig, Johnston, Boussingault^ and other Europeans, 

 for nearly all our knowledge of rural science. Cannot original researches be made 

 under a republican government as well as under monarchies ? a 



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