PLANT LIFE OK THE FAKM. 



particular places. The investigator who sets to work to 

 produce really improved varieties, has a more difficult 

 task before him, owing to the number of excellent varie- 

 ties already in existence. The consequence of this is 

 that much labor and patience must be expended before 

 any real improvement on what is already in existence can 

 be expected, although there is the chance that a real ad- 

 vance may be made almost at once. The large capital 

 employed by the seed-houses in raising and introducing 

 improved varieties real or so-called is, at least, a testi- 

 mony that the practice is pecuniarily profitable to the 

 trader, and forms therefore a resource which the agricul- 

 turist might develop for himself to a larger extent than 

 he does. He would reap the advantage on his own farm, 

 even if he lacked the capital and enterprise requisite to 

 conduct a commercial speculation away from it. 



Selection. The improvement of the races of cultivated 

 plants, as previously alluded to, is indicated by Nature 

 herself. In a wheat field or bean crop no two plants are 

 exactly alike : one is more robust than another, one 

 tillers more than the rest, the ears of one are plumper 

 and fuller, this one grows earlier or later in spring, is 

 therefore hardier or more tender, as the case may be. 

 The careful observer notes these points, and instead of 

 passing them over, endeavors to turn them to account by 

 selecting the plant which shows a tendency to vary, 

 taking seed from it and growing that seed another season. 

 A certain proportion of the offspring is pretty sure to 

 reproduce the desired qualities, probably even to mani- 

 fest them in an enhanced degree. This leads to further 

 and repeated selection, till, at length, a new race or 

 variety is established. When it is remembered whab 

 vast results have accrued from the improvement of wheat 

 and turnips by selection of this kind, it seems remarka- 

 ble that further efforts are not made in this direction, 



