466 



FACTOES OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION. 



The last column in this table has particular interest because it shows 

 the enormous acreage which these seeds, if all planted, would cover. 

 We are now curious to know if such areas really are planted to these 

 species, and if they are not, it will be pertinent to inquire what becomes 

 of the seeds. Unfortunately, we have no statistics of the entire acre- 

 ages of these various truck-garden crops, but the same census gives 

 the statistics of the commercial market gardens of the country. 

 Inquiry of seed merchants here has convinced me that about one- 

 fourth of all the seeds sold in any year go to market gardeners. I 

 have therefore multiplied the census figures of market gardens by four 

 for the purpose of arriving at an estimate of the total acreage of the 

 given crops in the United States; and I have introduced the last 

 column from the above table for purposes of comparison : 



It will thus be seen that there are enough cabbage seeds raised in 

 this country each year, if the census year is a fair sample, to plant 

 nearly three-quarters of a million acres more than actually are planted; 

 about the same surplus of cucumber seeds, and a surplus of tomato 

 seeds sufficient to plant over one and a quarter million acres. It is 

 possible, of course, that the figures of actual acreage of these crops 

 are too low; but such error, if it occur, must be much overbalanced by 

 the large quantities of home-grown and imported seeds which are used 

 every year. These startling figures would not apply so well to many 

 other crops which are detailed in the census bulletin. For instance, 

 the x)ease raised in this country would plant only abont 46,000 acres, 

 while there are over 100,000 acres actually grown ; but this discrepancy 

 is probably accounted for by the fact that the larger part of the seed 

 pease are grown in Canada, and therefore do not figure in our census. 

 There is a somewhat similar discrepancy in the watermelon, but in this 

 crop the seeds are very largely home saved by the heavy planters in 

 the South and West. I do not give these figures for their value as 

 statistics, but simply for the purpose of graphically expressing the fact 

 that many more seeds are raised by cultivators each average year than 

 are ever grown into plants, and that the struggle for existence does 

 not necessarily cease when plants are taken under the care of man. 



What, now, becomes of this enormous surplus of seeds'? Let us take 

 a rough survey of the entire seed crop of any year. In the first place, 

 a certain percentage of the seeds is laid aside by the seedsman as a 

 surety against failure in the year to come. Much of this old stock never 



