ON THE PKODUCTIVITY OF SEEDS. 



387 



were grown having been produced in 1900 and sown just before Christ- 

 mas 1902. Some of the unsown old seed still retains its vitality, but it 

 takes a long time to germinate. 



These and several other somewhat similar observations and experiments 

 have inclined me to think that seed grown on a poor soil, where lime, 

 phosphates, potash, and other minerals abound, but comparatively poor in 

 nitrogen, or even in nitrogenous humic matter, will be likely to be more 

 vigorous than that produced on rich soil. The quantity of seed pro- 

 duced will almost certainly be greatly f/ecreased. But the seed thus pro- 

 duced, especially when it has been kept a considerable time, is likely, 

 in my opinion, to be of great use as a stock-getter. 



Consider, very briefly, the usual methods of seed production. Our 

 larger seedsmen (who should be considered as among the very best friends 

 of the horticultural public) are always on the look-out for a really good 

 new variety or strain. This, when obtained, is selected at great cost, with 

 what care the ordinary cultivator often little imagines. Having got a fair 

 stock of the strain, as true to type as practicable, the owner often arranges 

 with various farmers to grow by contract a certain number of acres for 

 seed : the seedsman supplying the stock, the cultivator undertaking all 

 necessary operations. The seedsman, however, usually takes the precau- 

 tion to send out an expert to supplement the farmer's possibly imperfect 

 " roguing " (elimination of all not true to type) and to ensure its being 

 done at the proper time. In the case of Peas the usual contract price 

 is from 54s. to 80s. a quarter, of 8 bushels, the amount of seed supplied 

 being first deducted from the quantity returned, and the seedsman 

 paying all carriage expenses. These contracts are usually the best- 

 paying items of the arable-land farmer, and there is always a competition 

 for them. It is obvious, then, that a farmer, having obtained a contract 

 to grow so many acres of seed at an agreed price a bushel or a quarter, 

 will sow the stock seed on the best soil available. It happens that most 

 garden soils are in better condition than the majority of farm soils, and 

 hence the advantage of such seeds ; but, in my opinion, even better results 

 might be obtained if the poorer soils were used. However, it is a matter 

 for consideration, as the price of the seeds would necessarily be increased, 

 the yield being so very much less. In many instances the very small 

 yield would certainly not pay expenses. 



What, then, do we suggest ? Remembering the great advances made in 

 obtaining desirable, vigorous plants by cross-fertilisation and hybridisa- 

 tion, and the rigid selection now made by seedsmen, we are of opinion 

 that to these all-important methods may be added the minor, but never- 

 theless important, details of infusing increased vigour into strains of 

 long-recognised merit, which have become more or less enfeebled by 

 continuous groivth under similar conditions. 



What is true of plants commonly raised from seed is emphatically 

 true of those which, like the Potato, are propagated by vegetative parts : 

 that is, a continuation, by division, of the life of an individual plant. We 

 all know how the various varieties of Potatos become enfeebled, and 

 ultimately have to give place to newer strains. The results first 

 mentioned appear to indicate that the period of utility might be lengthened 

 if a few selected tubers were planted on a suitable poor soil, for the 



