Seed-Breeding . 
55i 
1879.] 
this oily showing ; in the true Tuscarora, no oil to be recog- 
nised, &c. This arrangement, which furnishes the basis for 
a practical classification of varieties, seems thus far to have 
been unused. In the cob we find also differences between 
varieties which are general for each variety — the large cob 
and small cob, the tapering cob, the cylindrical cob, the 
bulging cob, the white cob, the red cob, &c. In habit of 
ripening, one variety may mature in from 90 to 100 days,- 
while another variety may require from 180 to 200 days. 
These variations we have mentioned are not in the nature 
of monstrosities, or exceptional in their nature, but are 
general, and peculiar to varieties. They are hence strongly 
inherited, and transmissible by the seed in all cases when 
other conditions than those which have availed in the past 
are not brought into interference. 
Hence, if sweet-corn seed be planted, sweet-corn is har- 
vested ; if a pop-corn, then the pop-corn harvest is obtained ; 
if a red corn, then red ears are gathered ; if an 8-rowed 
corn, an 8-rowed crop, &c., throughout the whole list. As 
an undoubted fadt — a fadf which is the explanation of our 
general practice of planting the seed of the crop which we 
would gather — each seed has a heredity which causes it to 
develop the plant in the line of the past growth ; and when- 
ever, through natural or artificial agency, the character of 
the heredity has been determined for the seed, through any 
process by which like forces are accumulated and stored, we 
find the corresponding development in the offspring. That 
law of inheritance whereby we say “ like produces like,” 
meaning thereby the great law of continuance of develop- 
ment in the line in which forces compel, is hence so evident 
that as breeders of seed, or of animals, we can assume it as 
an axiom, and drop it from our discussion as too well known, 
too fully realised by the educated and trained mind, to re- 
quire explanation or illustration. What is of practical 
concern is the defining of certain kinds of heredity, the 
accumulation in line of desired tendencies, knowing that 
the law of likeness is uniform and universal, and adting 
always within the lines of its application. To mark out 
these lines, to compel the adtion in the diredtion for our 
profit, is the true art for pradtical study, use, and en- 
deavour. 
If this position be the corredt one, as we firmly believe, 
we may pass to the consideration of “ variations,” knowing 
full well that variations in all cases have a tendency, more 
or less strong, to be continued in the offspring, and that, if 
we can retain desirable variations for a sufficient number 
