320 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



All varieties of vegetables having succulent leaves or tops, as 

 celery, asparagus, cauliflowers and some others, are particularly 

 susceptible to injury from such treatment, and would have to 

 be sold at a much less price in any good market, if injured in 

 that way. 



Now is there any feasible plan by which the farmers and gar- 

 deners of Massachusetts can be supplied with the best of seed ? 

 We think they can in time, with certain varieties, and in this 

 way, and by the Agricultural College farm. They have an 

 abundance of land, in our judgment particularly well adapted 

 to the production of seeds, and of plants to grow them from, if 

 put into the right condition by good cultivation. Let them in 

 the course of their farming raise fields of wheat, oats, rye, 

 barley and corn of the grains ; beets, carrots, parsnips, onions, 

 turnips, cabbages, squashes, potatoes, or as many of tiiem as 

 would be desirable ; let them use only the best pure-bred stock 

 adapted particularly to cultivation in Massachusetts to propagate 

 from, continue to select their seed grain and their roots to grow 

 seed from with the utmost care, using such only as come up to 

 their standard of perfection, which should be of the highest 

 order. Then give to them the best cultivation possible, for cul- 

 tivation stands in precisely the same relation to plants, as care 

 and feeding do to cattle, and the principle so well established in 

 breeding animals, that like produces like, would be as certainly 

 exemplified in the vegetable as in the animal kingdom. 



Now having complied with these conditions, what can we rea- 

 sonably expect ? Why, that the crops of grain will be larger and 

 of much better quality than they have ever produced on the 

 college or on the neighboring farms, and being better than the 

 farmers have, there would be a great demand for seed. This 

 would apply also to seeds to be grown from the other vege- 

 tables named. 



What would be the result to the college if this plan should 

 be systematically and practically carried out, and the institution 

 had established a reputation for the best seed ? Why, that the 

 value of every acre of grain grown on their farm would be 

 worth more than double for seed what it would for feeding pur- 

 poses, and that the proceeds of the sales would buy twice as 

 much grain to feed to their stock. The same results would be 



