546 
Seed-Breeding . 
[August, 
show a perfect growth on a gravel-bank, the plant being but 
2 or 3 inches tall ; and the same plant in fertile soil will 
attain the height, accompanied by a corresponding degree of 
development otherwise, of as many feet. 
Thus we might go on and illustrate from facets which 
come under the observation of every one, the extreme 
variability of the plant nature, a variability which is to our 
advantage, as rendering the plant available to man according 
as art is exercised by him in developing these variations 
according to the laws of their structure, in the line of his 
desires. Every plant with which we are acquainted pos- 
sesses this power of variation in a marked degree, and the 
amount of this variation can be artificially determined for it 
through the processes of hybridisation and of culture as 
applied to the plant which furnishes the seed from which 
the individual is derived ; and it is this fadt which gives 
to man much power. Each seed possesses its own attributes 
and its own powers, and its own individuality, so that the 
conditions for germination and growth being uniform for all, 
a dozen kernels of corn planted will develop a different 
germinative power, a different rate of growth, and a different 
amount of produdl for each. 
Thus in an experiment of ours, kernels of corn were 
selected of the same size and from the same ear, and were 
planted, on land made fertile in excess, at the same time 
and the same depth, and on one plot no cultivation at all, 
but the weeds pulled by hand ; on another plot, the same 
conditions, but the land kept clean by the hoe. It was ob- 
served that there was a different rate of germination for each 
kernel in the hill, and between the kernels of the adjoining 
hills ; there was a difference in the rate of daily growth be- 
tween the plants from kernels in the same hill, and that on 
some day the rate of growth would be reversed as between 
these hills — one day one plant growing in excess of the 
others, and other days being the most backward, &c. When 
the crop was harvested, we found the following for the 
maximum and minimum product from hills of three kernels 
planted 
Plot i, Unhoed. 
JL 
Plot 2, Hoed. 
Corn (in ear). 
Stover. 
Corn (in ear). Stover. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. 
Lbs. Lbs. 
Greatest yield per hill 
3 
5i 
3l 6i 
Least yield per hill ... 
i 
6! 
i i 5i 
Average 
i*8 
4* 
2'3 5 
No. of ears, all qualities 
: — 
Largest number ... 
9 ears 
9 ears 
Least number 
2 5J 
3 ,, 
