346 HOW CROPS GROW. 



the other is fresh or bright to the eye, and free from 

 musty odor. The large, plump, and heavy seeds are 

 those which have attained the fullest development, and 

 can best support the embryo when it shall begin to 

 grow ; those fresh in color and odor are likely to be new, 

 and to have the most vigorous vitality. 



Ancestry ; Race-Vigor ; Constancy. There are, 

 however, important qualities in seed that are involved in 

 their heredity and give no outward token of their pres- 

 ence. Race-vigor and Constancy are qualities of this 

 sort, and these wonderfully persist in some kinds of seed 

 and are lacking in others. All cultivated plants occur 

 in numerous varieties, and, as the years go on, older 

 varieties "run out" or are neglected and forgotten, their 

 place being taken by newer and often, or for a time, bet- 

 ter ones. It would appear that a long course of careful 

 cultivation under the most favorable and uniform condi- 

 tions, coupled with careful and intelligent selection of 

 seed from the best-developed plants, not only leads to 

 the formation of the best varieties, but tends to establish 

 their permanence, so that when soil, climate, and care 

 are unfavorable, the kind maintains its character and 

 makes a stout resistance to deteriorating influences. 



In order to properly appreciate the value of seed, its 

 Pedigree must therefore be known. But seed of ances- 

 try, that has a long-established character for certain 

 qualities, in a given locality, may prove of little value 

 under widely different circumstances, or, if its products 

 be cultivated under new conditions, it may lose its char- 

 acteristics more or less, and develop into other varieties. 

 It is well known that various perennial plants of tropical 

 climates, like the castor bean, become annuals in north- 

 ern latitudes, and it may easily happen that the seed of 

 some prized variety which is of unquestioned pedigree, as 

 far as the remote lines of its descent can indicate, is of lit- 

 tle worth in soils or climates to which it is unaccustomed, 



