SELECTION OF PLANTS 39 



some of the stools having as many as eight or ten, but all very 

 weak. One stool died after growing two heads. 



Third Year. — No. I. — Magnificent growths, the heads 

 measuring on April loth from two inches to three and one- 

 quarter inches in circumference. 



No. 2. — Growth passable only, but very irregular. Some 

 of the stools were very small. The finest of them produced 

 heads which from April 8th to loth only measured two and 

 one-half inches in circumference. 



No. 3. — Growth very poor and very irregular. Some of 

 the stools continued to produce small heads not much thicker 

 than a quill pen, the largest being from one and one-half inch 

 to two inches in circumference. 



Fourth Year. — No. I. — Growth very remarkable. The 

 heads began to show on April 3d, 4th, 5th, 7th, and loth. 

 Some were from three and one-quarter inches to four inches in 

 circumference, and measured four and three-quarter inches. 

 Fifty of the heads formed abundle which weighed seven pounds. 



No. 2. — Growth passable, but later than No. i. The heads 

 made their first appearance on April 6th, loth, and nth. 

 Many of them were very small ; fifty of them barely made 

 half a bundle, and only weighed three and three-quarter 

 pounds. 



No. 3. — Growth but poor, and somewhat late. The heads 

 made their appearance on April 4th, 6th, gth, and nth ; one 

 did not show till the 22d. Fifty heads barely formed half a 

 bundle and only weighed two and one-half pounds. 



To sum up, it is clear that the plants of a year old in their 

 fourth season — that is to say, after having been planted out 

 for three years — gave a bundle weighing seven pounds, while 

 those of two years old only gave three and three-quarter 

 pounds, and those of three years old only two and one-half 

 pounds ; in other words, taking round numbers, the planta- 

 tion made with the one-year-old plants produced double the 

 crop of the two-year-old plants and treble that of the three- 

 year-old plants. The reader may easily draw his conclusions 

 from the preceding facts. 



