134 
Finger and Toe in Root Crops. 
quantity of seed required for the garden is less than that for tlie 
field, it is uniformly cultivated from good specimens with the 
greatest possible care ; but I have observed that in my College 
vegetable-garden, where, until recently, the plan of cultivation 
has been l)ut little in advance of that of the field,* finger-and-toe 
is a prevailing complaint in the root crops, and from what 
has Ijeen before advanced it will not be considered surprising, 
seeing that wild parsnips and carrots are weeds in the more neg- 
lected part of the garden. 
Still tliere are circumstances in garden cultivation which strik- 
ingly point out that malformed roots are the result of a retrograde 
approximation to the wild state. If, for example, seed be sown 
with a view to get turnips very early, the major part of them 
frequently run to seed, and the bulbs of those that do not 
are mostly ill-formed, woody, and quite devoid of that succulency 
in which excellence consists. Now here, as the time of the 
germination of the seed, and consequently the period for its 
growth, approximate more nearly to that of wild nature, it is not 
surprising that the crop should thereby assimilate to wild results. 
All specimens of root crops that seed prematurely, thus showing 
a tendency to annual growth, may be considered as degenerate, 
and will present the concomitant of finger-and-toe in the root. 
The accompanying drawing, No. 4, is an example of a seeding 
carrot from the Royal Agricultural College Farm. 
Late-sown roots are liable to produce a degenerate seed. — It is 
sometimes the practice to let a patch of late-sown turnips remain 
for seed; now, the fate of these is not to produce bulbs, and 
hence some are often so sown purposely for greens. Here we 
have the seed sown about the time that it is scattered from the 
wild plants ; and it is no wonder that our result should resemble 
the w ild plant in mode of growth, as in such cases we get a small 
but woody root, which is more or less branched ; as, therefore, 
the object of the crop is the root, we must fail in this if we cul- 
tivate a degenerate form. 
Dijfei-ent degree of liahility to degeneracy in different species. — 
My observations lead to the conclusion that the smaller the 
amount of difference between the wild and the cultivated state of 
a plant the greater the tendency to ramification in the roots, 
unless the circumstances of the growth of the latter be widely 
different from that of the wild state. Hence parsnips on the farm 
of the Royal Agricultural College will not pay for cultivation ; 
they are wild all around ; and as we have seen how great the 
change by even two years' cultivation from the wild seed, so we 
* The patch of ground forming the Vegetable Garden is for the most part situate 
in a bed of clay, resting on the freestone of the great or Bath oolite, and is only 
just getting into proper garden work. 
