SEEDS AND SEED GROWING. 



59 



as well as in animals, and ty intelligent selection and breeding 

 one may greatly improve or even originate new varieties of 

 vegetable as well as of other plants. The seed stock of desirable 

 new or improved varieties may often be sold at profitable prices, 

 or by retaining the sole ownership of such new or improved 

 kinds, one may perhaps raise crops that have highly esteemed 

 qualities as to size, shape, color, flavor, hardiness, season ot 

 maturity or other features, and so command an advanced price. 

 Thus a grower may sometimes be well rewarded for his care 

 and attention in improving his specialties, but careful study and 

 persistence is necessary to success and few persons are keen 

 enough in their powers of observation, to succeed in this line 

 of work. 



There is constant tendency for cultivated plants to vary 

 widely from the original form, though this feature may not mani- 

 fest itself for many generations after cultivation has com- 

 menced. The higher the state of cultivation to which a plant 

 is subjected, the higher are tlie chances of its producing new 

 features. In nature plants grow under fixed conditions, so they do 

 not vary much. V/hen a plant once commences to vary from the 

 original type, the changes ofttimes come very rapidly, and the 

 possibilities are endless. Thus from a wild plant tv/o or more 

 feet high with only a few leaves has been developed (1) the 

 modern cabbage of (a) the wrinkled, (b) the smooth, (c) the 

 red-leaved, and (d) the many ornamental kinds; (2) Brussels 

 sprouts with numerous small cabbage heads on a stem two or 

 more feet high; (3) caulifiowers, in which the infiorescence 

 becomes thick and fieshy; (4) the various kinds of kale; and (5) 

 cow cabbage, which in the Jersey Islands has been known to 

 ^row to the height of sixteen feet and strong enough for rafters 

 cf cow sheds. The many varieties of garden and field plants 

 are conclusive evidence of the variation of plants under cultiva- 

 tion. 



All of our valua'ble garden vegetables are the result of al- 

 most endless care in selection and in a few cases of artificial 

 as well as chance crossing. They must he regarded as artificial 

 productions having a constant tendency to revert to the inferior 

 wild state, which we must constantly try to overcome if their 

 desirable qualities are to be maintained. 



