The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-03-18
Deterioration in Plants Care in Selection.

If it takes twenty generations of sys
tematic crosses and careful breeding to
produce family of cattle or horses that
will breed true to the type selected, it will
take but three or four generations to Sc
seriously deteriorate them by neglect
and bad feeding that the originals from
which they sprung would not be recog-
nized except by the critical breeder.
So with plants and useful grains-pa-
tent and rersevering cultivators, by
careful selection and high culture, will
bring any given variety in the course of
five or six years to such a state of su-
periority that the unobservant man will
declare that it is not an old variety, but
one entirely new. So in some respects
it is, for it has gained increased vitality
under the system of cultivation, and
therefore the seed, tuber, bulb or fruit
will not only be largely increased in
size, but the plants also will have &C
quired increased power of germ forma-
ton or reproductive powers. Indeed,
some of our older cereals are not now
recognized through the wild specimens
of the same family, and of the later ones
the potato is pretty good exemplifca-
ton of the effect Of cultivation Indeed.
nearly all our garden vegetables, which
must, perforce, be given excellent cul-
ture, and have perfectly clean soil, with
fine filth, to produce satisfactory re-
suits, may be cited as instances.
Indian corn, which, under the modern
system of cultivation, has make the
West the granary Of the world in this
cereal, would, if allowed to grow among
weeds, fail to produce ears enough per
acre to pay the cost Of husking and
cribbing.
We all know that each year brings its
ever-increasing list of new varieties of
grains, vegetables and fruits. Ninety
nine out of one hundred are no better
than their predecessors have been.
Many of them are old acquaintance un-
der new name. Thus by careful selec-
ton and the best condition as to seiec-
ton variety of wheat is doubled and
trebled in its yield. 1t is widely adver-
tised and sent out and bought by farm
ers, and for short time the inherent
vitality it has acquired, and perhaps
superior cultivation, enable it to produce
crops superior to the varieties which the
farmer then has, but in the course of
two or three years it begins to degener-
ate, and finally is no better. perhaps not
so good, as the variety cultivated pre-
viously. Who is to blame-the origina-
tor who, by his careful cultivation and
as careful selection of the best grains
from particular heads for seed, has
brought the grain to perfection, or the
farmer who has allowed it to deteriorate
on his hands, Undoubtedly those INFO
whose hands the seed had fallen. If
they had taken the same pains in keep
ing it so that the originator did in bring
ing the seed to perfection the produce
would have remained identical with the
received, or if they bad used
due care in saving only the choicest of
the product for reseeding and had given
proper cultivation the standard would
have remained good enough.
In England. where the best cultivation
is necessary in order to pay the cost and
profits in raising a crop, the average of
wheat is fully four times what it is with
US under our system of cultivation. With
US again the careful wheat-grower will
get two or three times the average
produce that the ordinary one does. 1t
is fact that, as rule, the majority of
our farmers, because the soil is virgin,
do not give their attention to the best
conditions essential to the production of
full crops.
The point we wish to make is Just
here. To insure satisfactory results in
farming as in any other business we must
use every means in our power toward
that end. Some farmers, while giving
great attention to the preparation of the
soil, often neglect to give care in saving
absolutely plump and sound seed. While
it 10 true that inferior seed sown on
thoroughly prepared soil will produce
FAR better crops than the best seed sown
On weedy or ill-prepared land, it is as
nndeniably true that sound. selected
seed, combined with thorough and clean |
may mark the difference between
he really good farmer and the indiffer-
spt one.
We hare heretofore given directions