The Portland daily press., 1876-11-16
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Do Races of Plants wear Ou,e

About the latter part of the last century
Mr. Knight, the celebrated horticul.urist and
Psychologist finding that the orchards of Here
fordshire no longer contained healthy trees of
certain varieties OF the apple which had flour
ished remarkably we'll about fifty years before,
and failing 10 his attempts to iDfuse health
into such varieties by grating, assumed that
old age ard decrepltude had overtasep them
and that IN fact, they had become worn out.
Several writer's on vegetable physiology, out OF
respect for Mr.. Knights great name adopted
his theory without examining for themselves,
1t is now, however, pretty generally admitted
that reason aud evidence are opposed 10 tnis
theory, which appears 10 be an attempt TO APP
ply the laws of animal life to the vegetable
world.
Although it is fact that in the natutsl forest,
after fiourishing for many centuries perhaps,
races of broad-leaved trees die out and are sue
ceeded by races of Darrow-leaved trees, the
cause evidently arises from external, not in
trinsic circumstances. The soil which surrounds
them becomes exhausted of the particular
ingredients required for their growth, their
roots searching for sustenance, have pene-
trated into cold, uncongenial soil or they have
reached stagnapt water. The sap, the life
blood of the tree, becomes sadly deteriorated
and at length ceases to circulate and death
ensues. The seeds, taben by the birds, from
the cones OF narrow leaved trees, now vegetate
and race of these trees spfing up and -four
ish for centuries on the ingredients left in the
soil by the decay of the leaves, branches and
trunks of the broad leaved trees, but after the
lapse OF centuries change again takes place.
1t has been stated by the advocates of Mr..
Knight theory that, although plants in Wild
state do not wear out, they uncontestably do so
when arti6cially multiplied by division In
opposition to this he quoted the White Doyepne
pears OF France, which French writer's assure
US have been propagated from time immemoIi-
al, or the Jerusalem artichoke before named,
or the cultivated vines of Europe, many of
which were known to the Romans and have
been transmitted to the present day, by perpet-
ual division, but without any symptoms of de-
terioration or decrepitude The UitiS prdc0I
of Columella is admitted by the best authorities
to be identical with the Early Black July grape
of the present day; the nonaentana to be the
German 1Sdmtner, the qroculd, the modern Cor
inth and the ddctyle the present Finger grape.
MIR. Knights theory of the wearing out of
races of plants was quoted to account for the
potato disease, and it was asserted that the
potato was about to disappear altogether, but
facts have not borne out these predictions, for
the potato is fast regaining its former status
among cultivated crops. 1t has been frequent
~ stated that propagating plants from tubers
or cuttings, instead of from seeds, causes wear
ing out. but the Jerusalem artichoke, which
was introduced into England more than two
centuries ago, and has never borne seeds in that
country, has propagated itself from tdbers and
is still healthy and vigorous.
The sugar cane is rarely propagated by seeds,
its natural mode of propagation being by the
stem, which, when blown down by storm,
emits roots from every joint OF this natural
tendency man has availed himself as means
of artificially extending the plant.
On tkis subject De Candolle says: "We
may easily conceive that every cultivated va
riety has been multiplied by division, and every
plant obtained from it has been portion of
the same individual which accounts for their all
being exactly like each other. An identity of
origin in all the plants of the same variety has
led some psychologists to imagine that these
varieties, or fractions of an individual, light
die of old age. This was founded upon circum
stances observed by Mr.. knight with regard to
the Golden Pippin. But it appears to us diff
cult to admit, upon single act, an hypothesi S
opposed to all other facts That varieties will
last as long as man takes care of them appears
to be proved by many of them having been
preserved from the most remote periods But
it is also certain that negligence causes some to
disappear just as accident or industry brings
others into existence"