Development of Hoots of Agricultural Plants. 
425 
will often be the case, a pale and clil orotic appearance, from 
whicli it will never recover, even if the land itself is in good 
heart, which is not likely to be the case where the price of seed- 
corn is stinted. 
While, however, the first exigencies of the young plant depend 
upon the proper supply of nitrogenous and amyloid or starchy 
matter contained in the seed, it must never be forgotten that this 
supply lasts for a short time only, and that the ultimate vigour 
of the plant must depend upon the intrinsic condition of the 
soil. Many a crop which looks vigorous enough on its first 
appearance soon wears a sorry aspect where the soil is ungenial 
and its condition mean. 
An objection, however, has been made to me by a practical 
farmer to the following effect. Most of the objects of cultivation 
are in a condition which is not natural and is therefore akin 
to disease — a condition which constitutes their merit as objects 
of cultivation. It is thin, starveling seeds which in wall- 
flowers and dahlias produce the best flowers. It is, besides, a 
well known fact, that to produce first-rate turnip-seed, which 
will yield good roots without running too much to leaf or stem, 
the turnips must be transplanted and not allowed to flower 
without removal. The size of the grains in our best wheats is 
as unnatural as that of the turnip, why then should we object 
to the use of thin, meagre seed ? 
There is doubtless something in the objection ; but though 
seed-wheat, if sound and healthy, is better when derived from 
a poorer soil than from one which is highly manured, we have 
no right to expect good results where the seed is in so mean a 
condition that it cannot properly supply the first necessities of 
the plant. Seed from well-cultivated soil, where artificial 
manure is not too freely used, is far more likely to produce a 
good yield than that from highly pampered plants, Avhich, like 
those from new melon or cucumber seeds, will be apt to run to leaf. 
There is little doubt that much remains to be done for the farmer 
in this direction.* 
I have hitherto considered only the first stage of the root, 
nourished at first by something derived from its envelopes, then 
* Diseased conditions are often handed down by seed. A few years since I had 
some diseased oats submitted to me, which were taken from a particuhir part of a 
field. I found on inquiry that the seed used in this part of the field was derived 
from a difi'ereut quarter — a matter which I had suspected from the first. The 
seed produced year by year was sown by me several years in succession, and the 
peculiar bleached appearance of the bells was constantly reproduced. I have no 
doubt that seed from a healthy crop is of great importance ; and it is much to be 
■wished that cultivators of known integrity and intellect should turn their atten- 
tion to the production of seed-corn as a special branch of agriculture, a practice 
which would prove, 1 believe, highly remunerative. See ' Agr. Gaz.' 1S55, pp. 
569, 586, 
