Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-04-29

About Seeds.

About Seeds.
Every experienced farmer and gardener un-
ierstands the value of good seeds-good in
every respect They know that seed produ-
eed from an unhealthy plant is less valuable
than that from one that Is perfectly healthy,
and the careful cultivator is particular to save
seed from the best specimens.
Our cultivated plants are mostly derived
from plants which originally grew in a wild
state, and by careful culture and selection
have been brought from much less valuable
state than they are at present in. 1t is under
stood as principle, by enlightened culturists,
that where vegetable or plant has been
brought from a lower to a higher state, there
Is a constant tendency or liability to return
to their original condition, unless care be
used to keep what has been gained, OF i'm
prove thereon. The only way of preventing
this determination is in good cultivation
selection and rotation, change of locality
With all our present knowledge and improved
culture, there are some plants which gradually
loose their good qualities, or show constant
tendency TO drop back. Such are measurably
remedied by change Of locality and special
care. If plant be removed from its natural
soil and climate. this determination is apt to
be much more rapid. Seeds, in general, pro-
duce better when the change Is from colder
to a warmer climate, and from poorer to
ty to soil and climate, good cultivation and
.judicious selection from the most vigorous and
best plants and specimens when they are fully
ripe, drying them and properly storing where
they will not be liable to too great heat or to
gather dampness, will, instead of deteriorat
ing, improve their qualities; and the farmer
who thus saves and preserves his own seed
knows what he plants-he introduces no
foreign seed of weeds to cause him future
trouble in cultivation.
1t is fact well known, but less frequently
acted upon. that different varieties of the
same species or families are liable to mix or
hybridize if grown near each other, and the
varieties blossom at the same time the winds
often bear the pollen from one to the other.
Bees and insects also act agents in distribu-
ting pollen and fertilizing plants, so that
there is no absolute certainty of refining
purity, unless different varieties are entirely
disconnected at a considerable distance. So
great is this liability to mix that we constant
Iy see examples of it in many kinds of fruit,
&c Plant the seeds of an apple, strawberry
grape, and there is seldom plant produced
having the same qualities as the parent. Our
Indian corn is another example of the mixture
of varieties which is readily distinguished by
external appearance. The other grains and
grasses are less liable, or show the difference
less, If at all.
barley, perhaps few stalks may be found
which bear heads, the grain of which varies
in some respect from the rest of the crop.
These, If selected and saved separately, and
planted, and the best of the product saved for
future planting, and such selection and care
full culture continue for a term of years, will
succeed in establishing valuable new varie
ties Such has been the case, and the same
may IN the future be accomplished by any
one having the necessary patience and perse-
verance, to the gradual improvement of the
art of agriculture. In like manner corn may
be improved by careful selection and culture
TO develope any particular point, but it is a
work of years, and cannot be soon or suddenly
accomplished. The potato being of a diff
ferent class, and propagated differently, is not
liable to change by mixture. The common
mode of culture of the potato Is to propagate
from tubes or eyes, and not from the seed,
which is produced in small potato balls -
from the ends of the stems, following the bios
SONS. The potato is merely an enlarged
underground branch, and the eyes answer the
same end as the buds on the branches of the
apple tree, or the grapevine in dormant
state so that new varieties or mixtures can
he no more produced from planting the tubers
than new varieties of grapes can be had from
planting cuttings Of the vine, or new varieties
of apples from grating the scion into different
stock. To obtain new varieties of potatoes,
the seed from ripe balls of the potato are plan
ted, and seldom are there two of a kind pro-
duced from seeds of the same plant In this
way of planting the seed and selecting the
most promising sorts, .ju lying from the foil
age tops and the tubers, have been produced
many new vareties.-CuHiratOr-
APPLICATION OF MANURE have been
anxiously waiting for more facts bearing on
the question of plOughing and narrowing in
manure Some of the statements in late num-
hers of the FARMER go to extremes. In No.
Az III saws those who have tried harrow
ing in manure are staunch friends OF the har
row. Another gentleman says he has become
satisfied by experience, that three loads of
manure put in with the harrow are well worth
five buried with the plough for a grain of
grass crop, and will hold out longer. If this
Re so | am satisfied that a great many farm
do not know how to apply manure, or else
they would not have such poverty stricken
farms as they have, when they could manure
more acres every year than they do and re-
ceive greater remuneration for their labor.
He then says if he was to plough manure
eight inches deep, he would feel like saying,
goodbye manure. Another gentleman says
he has known some farmers plough in heavy
dressing so deep that they never heard from
it afterwards and he thinks himself if man
IRE is ploughed under, say one foot, it is
buried not only out of sight, but out of reach
of any grain or grass grown in this land,
Taking these cases. which I call extreme
ones, and looking at the plan of putting on
twelve loads manure to the acre, and leaving
it upon the surface, expose to wind and sun,
and ploughing it under eight and twelve in
ches deep, can hardly see where such ex-
tremes will meet. One says the gases of the
manure work upwards another that the rain
washes the essential part of the manure into
the soil If then, we plough manure in from
four to six inches deep, shall we not get the
benefit of the manure both upward and down.
wards? This, at any rate, is my way of farm
ing, as it is of the generality ofagriculturists