300 APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 



1). Out of 530 grains of Winter Wheat, sown on tlie 

 23d of April, and weigliing 7 ounces 52 grains, not 

 one pushed into ear ; they tillered abundantly, but the 

 tillers were excessively stunted, and concealed among 

 the tufts of leaves ; in short, they formed nothing but 

 turf: on the other hand, of 580 other grains, weigh- 

 ing 3 ounces 56 grains, and sown on the same day, 

 60 pushed in ear. 



It would seem as if many of our most esteemed 

 garden plants were the result of debility, and that the 

 succulence, the sweetness, or the excessive size, which 

 render them so well suited for food, were only marks 

 of unhealthiness. At least, it is almost necessary to 

 assume this to be the case, in order to account for 

 the efficacy of one of the modes of maintaining races 

 genuine. It is perfectly well known, that, if such an 

 annual as a Turnip is transplanted shortly before it 

 runs to seed, the characters of its variety will remain 

 more strongly marked, and have far less tendency to 

 vary, than if, all other circumstances remaining the 

 same, the seed is saved without the process of trans- 

 plantation having been observed. Now, the only 

 effect of transplanting, at the season immediately pre- 

 ceding the formation of a flower-stalk, would seem to 

 be that of checking the luxuriance of the individual 

 operated on ; or, upon the above assumption, of in- 

 creasing its debility of constitution. And the same 

 explanation appears applicable to a strange custom 

 mentioned by Mr. Ingledew as being practised in the 

 Dekkan, to prevent the rapid deterioration, in that 

 climate, of the Carrot, the Eadish, and the Parsnep, 



