THE GENESEE FARMER. 



339 



different from those in wliich the species grows wild; 

 besides this, as the quantity of seed required for the 

 garden is less than that for the lield, it is uniformly 

 cultivated from good specimens with the greatest 

 possible care ; but I haA-e observed that in my Col- 

 lege vegetable-garden, where untill recently, the ]jlan 

 of cultivation has been but little in advance of that 

 of the field, finger-and-toe is a jirevailing complaint 

 in the root-crops, and from what Ikis l>cen before ad- 

 vanced it will not be considered surprising, seeing 

 that wild parsnips and carrots are weeds in the more 

 neglected part of the garden. 



Still there are circumstances in garden cultivation 

 which strikingly point out that malformed roots are 

 tlie result of a retrograde approximation to the wild 

 state. If, for example, seed be sown with a view to 

 get turnips very early, the nuijor part of them fre- 

 quently run to seed, and the bulbs of those that do 

 not are mostly ill-formed, woody, and quite devoid of 

 tliat succulency in which excellence consists. Now 

 here, as the time of the germination of the seed, and 

 consequently the period for its growth approximate 

 more nearly to that of wild nature, it is not surpris- 

 ing that the crop should thereby assimilate to wild 

 results. All specimens of root crops that seed pre- 

 maturely, thus showing a tendency to annual growth, 

 may be considered as degenerate, and will present the 

 concomitant of finger-and-toe in the root. 



Late-sown roots are liable to produce a degenerate 

 seed. It is sometimes the practice to let a patch of 

 late-sown turnips remain for seed; now, the fate of 

 these is not to produce bulbs, and hence some are of- 

 ten so sown purposely for greens. Here we have the 

 seed sown about the time that it is scattered from 

 the wild plants; and it is no wonder that our result 

 should resemble the wild plant in mode of growth, as 

 in such cases we get a small but woody root, which 

 is more or less branched ; as, therefore, the object of 

 the crop is the root, we must fail in this if we culti- 

 vate a degenerate form. 



Different degree of liability to degeneracy in dif- 

 ferent species. — .My observations lead to the conclu- 

 sion that the smaller the amount of difference between 

 the wild and the cultivated state of a plant tl\e great- 

 er the tendency to ramification in the roots, unless the 

 circumstances of the growth of the latter latter be 

 widely different from that of the wild state. Hence 

 parsnips on the farm of the Royal Agricultural Col- 

 lege will not pay for cultivation; they are wild all 

 around; and as we have seen how great the change 

 by even two years' cultivation from the wild seed, so 

 we have seen the tendency to reversion to their wild 

 form rapidly develop itself by a continuance of the 

 same circumstances. Carrots, however, in their culti- 

 vated form present a wilder difference from their wild 

 state than do parsnips; they take a greater time to 

 civilize, and consequently we should not expect them 

 to revert to their wild condition so readily, and in- 

 deed it will generally be found that they die away if 

 left to chance. 



As regards turnips it will be observed as a rule 

 that any sorts which have often been grown in the 

 same land have a tendency to degenerate; hence fin- 

 ger-and-toe will in such cases prevail. New varieties 

 at first maintain their form much better. Swedish 

 turuipg, in their hybrid nature being farther removed 



from the wild type on the same ground, will be found 

 to present less tendency to finger-and-toe than the 

 common turnips. 



General Conclusiom;. — From the foregoing remarks 

 it will be seen that the ringer-and-toe in roots is not 

 viewed by me as a disease in the strict sense of that 

 term, but as a natural result of the early stage of 

 change from wilderness to civilization. The enumer- 

 ated expc>riinents seem to show that finger-and toe ia 

 the midway from wilderness to cultivation; and our 

 observations upon the circumstances connected with 

 cultivated root crojjs, that the malformation in them 

 is the result of degeneration from cultivation to wild- 

 ness. 



SHEEP AND WOOL. 



Wool at this time is twenty-five to thirty per cent, 

 lower than it was last year in market, although it 

 now sells as high as the average price for the last ten 

 years preceding the chp of 1852, when wool raising 

 was considered by our farmers as a paying business. 

 The year 18.j3 was an inflated year. Almost all com- 

 modities of American product had for years been ap- 

 proaching a cidminating point. Railroads, real es- 

 tate, especially in our growing cities and towns, farm- 

 ing lands at large — all increased in a ration of value 

 too rapid to be mainted. A foreign demand raised 

 our grain to enormous prices, equal to the very high- 

 est of war-time and scarcity ; and wool, unfortunate- 

 ly for the dealers and manufacturers, had the same 

 tendency, though not to so great an extent. For the 

 first time, in years, large quantities of wool were con- 

 tracted for, all over the country, months in advance 

 of the chiJpitig season, at prices which resulted in 

 heavy losses to the buyers. The market, of course, 

 reacted, and now wool is down. Sales are dull, or if 

 eflected, they are at such low rates as to dissatisfy the 

 producers. 



Let us, however, look into it. Wool is still worth 

 as much as it was in any one year from 184.5 up to 

 1851, and more, by several cents per pound than dur- 

 ing some of the interventing years. We know this 

 experimentally, for we have grown and sold wool 

 every year for the past ten years. Almost eveiy win- 

 ter of those years, up to 1850, millions of sheep in 

 the aggregate, throughout the country, were slaugh- 

 tered for their pelts and tallow alone. This was no 

 great loss to the country, to be sure, for the most of 

 them were miserable animals, yielding light fleeces of 

 the lowest^priced wools, and were scarce worth feed- 

 ing for mutton. Since then, beef has advanced large- 

 ly in price, and mutton has followed it. Sheep have 

 consequently increased in number ; and for three 

 j^ears past, comparatively few have been so reckless- 

 ly slaughtered for their pelts and tallow. 



Now, the low price of wool begins to suggest the 

 question to many, whether great numbers of sheep 

 will not be taken to the shambles next winter for 

 like objects ? If our farmers, as in former days, 

 chance to be discouraged by the present price of 

 wool, and therefore set it down as a rule that sheep 

 won't pay, of course millions of sheej) will again be 

 sacrificed. But we hope no such acts of folly will 

 be committed. We American farmers, as well as 

 others, are a very spasmodic class of people. When 



