A NEW SCIENCE. 



255 



attained from soil, is transmissible to offspring. 

 Light soils tend to make most plants smaller. Pea 

 growers characterize soils as "good" and "viney." 

 Upon the latter sort the plants run to vine at the 

 expense of fruit, and their offspring, for two or three 

 generations, have the same tendency. Light soils 

 decrease the tendency to vary. Of many plants, 

 seedsmen secure best seeds from such soils. These 

 seeds are more likely than others to "come true," 

 to reproduce their parents closely. Upon heavy 

 and rich soils varieties tend to "break," or to as- 

 sume various forms; and this "breaking" is the 

 inception of new varieties. Our general knowledge 

 of the influences of soils upon plants, of which 

 these illustrations are trifling examples, is wholly 

 fragmentary. 



Change of latitude often works great change in 

 cultivated plants, and yet the change is so obscure 

 as to lead good observers to declare that acclima- 

 tization does not exist. The most apparent effect 

 of removal through degrees of latitude appears in 

 the stature of the plant. Northward, plants are 

 smaller, dwarfer than southward. Corn is a famil- 

 iar example. In Canada and the Northern States 

 the species is represented by the flint or "Yankee" 

 corns, while in the Middle or Southern States the 

 varieties are all dents. In Canada the average 

 height of corn is six feet, against twelve feet in the 

 Gulf states. Moreover, recent experiments show 

 that flints become dents, and vice versa, in a few 

 generations, through a simple change of latitude. 

 As a rule, dwarf plants are relatively more produc- 

 tive than large ones, and as more plants can be 

 grown upon a given area, it follows that they give 

 greater total yields in field culture. But there must 

 be a point beyond which dwarfing is unprofitable, 

 as diminutive plants can produce little. In other 

 words, there must be for each species a most profit- 

 able ratio of size of plant to quantity of fruit. Ex- 

 periment can determine this ratio, and must then 

 seek to produce it. In general, transfer in latitude 

 seems to be the readiest means to accomplish this 

 object. When the latitude of most profitable pro- 

 duction is determined for each species, the plant 

 can there be propagated for dissemination else- 

 where. Variation in reference to latitude is appar- 

 ent in many directions. Color, flavor, habit of 

 plant, and even variability itself, all are modified in 

 many ways through laws of latitude, altitude and 

 climate which we cannot yet announce. 



Plants respond in a wonderful manner to man's 

 care through direct selection. "Like produces 

 like " is to the gardener a law of circumstances and 

 conditions. If the phrase were strictly true, we 



should expect no improvement in varieties. We 

 should still know only the old Cherry tomato and the 

 single white or pink petunia. When once a species 

 begins to vary, is " broken," man's power over it is 

 marvelous. In a score of ways it responds to his 

 touch. Yet, strangely enough, there are few explicit 

 laws known concerning plant breeding by simple 

 selection. It is tolerably well known that the char- 

 acter of offspring is determined by the character 

 of the parent as a whole, rather than by that of 

 any individual part which we may desire to nnprove. 

 Small tubers of potatoes from large or productive 

 hills give larger yields than large tubers from small 

 hills. An experimenter labored in vain for many 

 years in the endeavor to improve the tomato by 

 selecting seeds from best fruits, but when he began 

 to select seeds from fruits of best plants success 

 came rapidly. So it appears that even so simple a 

 matter as "selecting the best" may result in poor 

 practice. 



Darwin's work on Fertilization in the Vegetable 

 Kingdom suggests an attractive and profitable field 

 of horticultural inquiry. His experiments refer par- 

 ticularly to the immediate effect of cross-fertiliza- 

 tion upon the productiveness of the fertilized plants, 

 and they first called attention to the great import- 

 ance of crossing to the plant itself. But it is only 

 a step from this labor to the larger one of produc- 

 ing new and distinct varieties through crossing and 

 hybridization. Liudley wrote that "hybridizing is 

 a game of chance played between man and plants." 

 It has now become a tolerably successful practice, 

 however, and is a subject of common discussion 

 among the better cultivators Notwithstanding this, 

 and the elucidation of many recent experiments, 

 Lindley's phrase is not yet outgrown. Even the 

 best of operators assume no exact knowledge. We 

 simply know that if a cross or hybridization is af- 

 fected between varieties or species of given char 

 acters, the offspring will likely combine more or less 

 of the features of both, in varying degrees. Many 

 examples of remarkable results of cross-breeding 

 are proof that there are great possibilities in it for 

 the horticulturist. Common literature is full of the 

 assumed achievements of the practice, yet, in fatt, 

 our vegetable and fruit plantations know remark- 

 ably few good crosses and hybrids. In ornamental 

 plants instances are common, and among the or- 

 chids they are numerous and commercially impor- 

 tant. Many suppose, and with reason, that all or 

 nearly all plants are capable of great improvement 

 through amalgamation. There is certainly more 

 reason to hope for great results of cross-breeding 

 among vegetables than among animals, for the rea- 



