296 



SUB ROSA. 



part, our new varieties are now obtained by chance, 

 or at best by a most imperfect system of selection. 

 But the close competition in the business at the 

 present lime is demanding a more perfect adapta- 

 tion of plants to specific conditions, and it is push- 

 ing the seed-growers into systematic endeavors. 

 The seed-grower must be a man of the most exact 

 methods if he produces best plants. He inust dis- 

 cover and analyze the minutest differences and 

 variations in plants. These remarks are admirably 

 illustrated in the paper on the "Development of 

 the Cabbage," which appears in this issue, and 

 which is written by one of the best seed-breeders in 

 the country. 



The seed-breeder looks to two general lines of 

 effort for the production and improvement of varie- 

 ties : amalgamation and selection. By crossing 

 there is a possibility of arriving at definite ends, 

 but our knowledge of amalgamation in plants is so 

 slight that we cannot often use it with profit outside 

 the field of ornamental gardening. As a matter of 

 fact, no seed-grower employs crossing as a means 

 of improving kitchen-garden vegetables, although 

 much is said concerning crosses and hybrids. Some 

 growers undoubtedly suppose that they are employ- 

 ing it by planting kinds near each other and hoping, 

 or expecting, that they will intermix. But such in- 

 termixture is much less frequent than gardeners, or 

 even experimenters, suppose ; and the good results 

 which appear to come from such methods are un- 

 doubtedly mostly produced by an unconscious selec- 

 tion. We have positively no knowledge as to 

 whether or no crossing is a^i available means of 

 improving cabbages, roots, potatoes, tomatoes and 

 most other vegetables ; and its influence even among 

 squashes, melons and cucumbers is not understood. 



Selection remains the important factor in im- 

 jDrovernent of plants. In fact, even when we have 

 learned the laws of amalgamation, selection will 

 still increase in importance as a means of securing 

 suitable parents and of adapting plants to minor 

 conditions of treatment and environment. We are 

 already possessed of many principles of selection, 

 some of which admit of safe generalization : 



1. The character of the plant is more important than 

 the character of any part of that plant. Heredity ap- 

 pears to He chiefly, or wholly, in the plant as a whole, 

 to be identified with constitution and individuality. Se- 

 lecting seeds from large fruits simply is rarely, if ever, 

 profitable, but selection from best plants gives early im- 

 provement. 



2. It is important to breed for but one thing at a time. 

 Plants rarely, if ever, vary simultaneously in two or 

 more directions. If color is sought, breed for it ; and 



upon the gain thus made, breed for size or other desired 

 attribute. 



3. Breed in the best localities, in those places where 

 the desired feature is most nearly approached, or where 

 the plant reaches its most perfect development. Most 

 cultivated plants are in a sense cosmopolitan, but there 

 are some, of which the cauliflower may be cited as an 

 example, which reach perfection only in comparatively 

 limited areas. 



4. The operator must breed for a definite purpose. 

 This may seem a truism, and yet it is undoubtedly true 

 that few plant breeders possess a positiveness and single- 

 ness of purpose. 



5. The breeder must know the points of an ideal va- 

 riety. It is probably safe to say that the men are rare, 

 even among good gardeners, who possess any adequate 

 knowledge of the ideals in any class of vegetables. 

 There are few who look beyond the saleableness or mere 

 quality in any plant or product in their measure of the 

 ideal ; in fact, saleableness and quality must be closely 

 analyzed, for they both depend upon the combination of 

 several or many minor features. A variety may sell 

 above every other variety and yet be far short of an 

 ideal, even for market. But mere saleableness should 

 never, in itself, be the measure of the ideal, even though 

 it be held to include quahty. The perfect plant in its 

 entirety should be kept in mind. In this connection, 

 the article on the cabbage will bear study. 



* * 



IT MAY be humiliating to New-Yorkers to lose 

 the World's Fair, but, under the circumstances, 

 there is some cause for congratulation on the 

 turn affairs have taken in this city. However 

 mortifying to our civic pride may be the pettiness 

 and bickerings shown by some of our millionaires 

 having the matter in charge, the tribute to land- 

 scape work shown by the outburst of feeling on the 

 part of the public at the attempt to devote Central 

 Park to the uses of a fair-ground, was most grati- 

 fying. It shows that people are not as indifferent 

 as is often assumed, although long-suffering and 

 slow to wrath. Manifold as maybe the advantages 

 of a truly great international exhibition, the loss of 

 New York's great breathing space at a time when 

 greater crowds would make it an additional necess- 

 ity, seems to many thinking men indefensible. If 

 the laws are changed in this instance to divert it 

 from the great public benefit for which it was in- 

 tended, what security will there be in the future, 

 against its use for other private money-making pur- 

 poses ? The people have the fate and disfigure- 

 ment of the City Hall Park before them, and do 

 not seem disposed to believe the assertions that only 

 temporary injury will ensue. It seems singular 

 that the commissioners of the fair should so antag- 



