

146 



ON THE GOOD DERIVED 



Chap. XVIII. 



The belief that plants are thus benefited, whether or not well founded 

 has been firmly maintained from the time of Columella, who wrote shortly 

 after the Christian era, to the present day ; and it now prevails in England 

 France, and Germany. 1 A sagacious observer, Bradley, writing in 1724 * 

 says, " When we once become Masters of a good Sort of Seed, we should at 

 " least put it into Two or Three Hands, where the Soils and Situations are 

 " as different as possible ; and every Year the Parties should change with 

 " one another ; by which Means, I find the Goodness of the Seed will be 

 " maintained for several Years. For Want of this Use many Farmers 

 " have failed in their Crops and been great Losers/' He then gives his 

 own practical experience on this head. A modern writer 3 asserts, " Nothing 

 " can be more clearly established in agriculture than that the continual 

 growth of any one variety in the same district makes it liable to dete- 

 rioration either in quality or quantity." Another writer states that lie 

 sowed close together in the same field two lots of wheat-seed, the product 

 of the same original stock, one of which had been grown on the same 

 land, and the other at a distance, and the difference in favour of the crop 

 from the latter seed was remarkable. A gentleman in Surrey who has 

 long made it his business to raise wheat to sell for seed, and who has 



(C 



(( 



constantly realised in the market hi 



that he finds it indispensable continually to change his seed ; and that for 



this purpose he keeps two farms differing much in soil and elevation. 



With respect to the tubers of the potato, I find that at the present day 

 the practice of exchanging sets is almost everywhere followed. The great 



rowers of potatoes in Lancashire formerly used to get tubers from 

 Scotland, but they found that " a change from the moss-lands, and vice 

 versa, was generally sufficient." In former times in France the crop of 



cour 



surpnsm 



years in the proportion from 120-150 to 30-40 bushels ; and the famous 



ood which he effected in large part to 

 changing the sets. 



A well-known practical gardener, Mr. Kobson, 5 positively states that he 

 has himself witnessed decided advantage from obtaining bulbs of the 

 onion, tubers of the potato, and various seeds, all of the same kind, from 

 different soils and distant parts of England. He further states that with 



1 For England, see below. 



For 



Walker's 'Prize Essay of Highland 



Germany, see Metzger, ' Getreidearten/ Agrieult. Soc./ vol. ii. p. 200. 

 1841, s. 63. For France, Loiseleur-Des- 



Also 



5 < 



longchamps (' Oonsid. sur les Cereales/ 

 1843, p. 200) gives numerous references 

 on this subject. For Southern France, 

 see Godron, ' Florula Juvenalis,' 1854, 



p. 28. 



2 ' A General Treatise of Husbandry/ 



vol. hi. p. 58. 



3 ' Gardener's Chronicle and Agrieult. 



Gazette/ 1858, p. 247; and for the 



second statement, idem. 1850, p. 702. 1865, p. 44. 



On this same subject, see also Rev. D. 



Marshall's 'Minutes of Agriculture/ 



November, 1775. 



4 Oberlin's < Memoirs/ Eng. translat., 



For Lancashire, see Marshall's 



p. 73. 



' Review of Reports/ 1808, p. 295. 



Cottage Gardener/ 1856, p. 186. 

 For Mr. Robson's subsequent state- 

 ments, see « Journal of Horticulture, 

 Feb. 18, 1866, p. 121. For Mr. Abbeys 

 remarks on grafting, &c, idem, July 1*. 



