SECRETARY'S REPORT. 253 



excuse for such a practice ; and if liis knowledge is not suffi- 

 ciently ticcurate, lie should have by him some good authority for 

 a guide. 



With the utmost care, this matter of preserving varieties in 

 their purity is no easy task. Independently of their mixture by 

 blossoms, a change of location, or of soil even, seems to have an 

 important influence in changing their characteristics. There 

 has been a curious instance of this in our experience. Not many 

 ^ years since, we obtained from a friend in Portland, Ct., a few 

 kernels of a very small and early kind of sweet corn. This was 

 taken home, some sixty miles north on the Connecticut River, 

 and planted in good soil, well manured, and apart from any 

 other corn. It made a large growth of stalks, and when the 

 crop began to mature, the ears were so much larger the most of 

 them as to appear like another variety. On close examination, 

 a number of ears were found bearing a close resemblance to the 

 original, and much more forward than the others. These were 

 reserved for future planting. The next -crop was more even, the 

 cars were larger than the original, but not so large as those of 

 the last year. The same principle was again observed in select- 

 ing seed, viz., selecting before quite ripe, and taking the ears 

 most like the original, which were always found to be the earliest. 



This season some of this seed was taken back to Connecticut, 

 not to the same place, but to nearly the same degree of latitude 

 and to a similar soil, and there planted. The produce of this 

 planting shows it to' have returned to its exact original type, the 

 stalks and ears being uniformly small, if anything smaller, than 

 those from which the seed was taken. It should be remarked, 

 perhaps, that the tendency of all dwarf kinds of corn is to 

 increase in size, in the Connecticut Valley, as far as our 

 experience goes. 



In regard to the time to set seed-plants, or to sow seed for 

 seed-raising, Mr. Simon Brown, in U. S. Agricultural Report for 

 1863, remarks that biennials, particularly cruciform plants, such 

 as turnips, cabbages, radishes, &c., should be set early, as soon as 

 the frost is well out of the ground. The cabbage and turnip, 

 when set later, suffer from the heat and dryness of the summep; 

 but they are generally injured far more by the vermin and mil- 

 dew, to which they are peculiarly liable, later in the season. In 

 regard to curcubitious plants, such as cucumbers, melons, 



