Finger and Toe in Root Crops. 
133 
1852 he <rot so good a crop of seed as to induce him, on clearlna;' 
off the first crop, immediately to try a second in the same ground. 
During the past summer, 1853, he again got seed, but much 
less in quantity, as the roots were all diseased. Now, as 
I constantly watched this piece of about a quarter of an acre, I 
am enabled to say that finger-and-toe was prevalent throughout 
the whole patch, whilst many roots had a tendency to decay, so 
that the flower-stalks dropped away for want of support. I have 
had no further opportunity of tracing this seed, but nothing can 
be clearer than that the second year's growth had degenerated 
from that of the first ; and if, as is very probable, the seed be 
used again in the district in a similar soil, one cannot wonder at 
an unsatisfactory result. 
Degeneracy innsf. always result where a whole patch or field is 
indiscriminately jiut by for seed. — Amongst every crop there are 
sure to be some examples unworthy of being progenitors ; and as, 
with the continued cultivation of any sort, the constant want of 
keeping up those circumstances of care and attention by which 
original sorts may be produced necessarily ends in degeneracy, 
it is no wonder that any kind which has for a long time been a 
favourite in a particular district should ultimately lose caste. 
For seeding, the best examples should always be chosen, and 
these should be transplanted, for it is by these processes of cul- 
ture that the impress of cultivation can be maintained. And 
again, this transplantation should in all cases be as far from 
other patches of the same tribe as possible, in order to prevent 
the influence of hybridism. 
Degeneracy is usually a result in districts where the original 
species is a icild native. — The soil, climate, and situation which 
are suitable for a plant in the wild state are by no means fit for 
it in cultivation ; it is on this account that so many of our escu- 
lents may be traced as natives of the sea-coast ; the complete 
change of circumstances attendant upon their inland cultivation 
are just those which necessitate such a change in the whole 
growth of a plant as makes the sum of the difference between a 
wild and a cultivated example ; hence, as both parsnip and carrot 
in the wild form are constant denizens of the neighbourhood of 
Cirencester, neither of these roots can be cultivated twice with 
us in the same soil without presenting finger-and-toe in an 
aggravated form ; and if the seed employed be from a degenerate 
crop, or cultivated at home, the evil is still more conspicuous. 
This, however, is less apparent in garden than in field cul- 
ture, as in the former the ground is always dug deeper, and there 
is such a constant change of crop, mode of cultivation, seed, and 
addition of manure, that the circumstances are widely different 
from those in which the species grows wild ; beside this, as the 
