though neither will be changed into the other. If, however, the pumpkin is the stronger plant in its specific character, the offspring may possi bly in either ease resemble the pumpkin more thau the squash. None of the species of the squash and the pumpkin should be cultivated near one another. The muskmelon (Cucumis web)) and the watermelon (Olen mis citrullus) are liable to hybridize. It is said by some that the muskmelon and the cucumber (Cucumis sativus) will hybridize, but Al. Sageret, an experienced hybridist, declares that he was unable to effect any union between them. All the species of the Cucumis, or melons, cucumbers, and colo cynths, should not be cultivated together. The inquiry has frequently been made whether the Bush Bean (Phaseolus aanus) will change into the Pole Bean, (Phaseolus vulgaris). It will not. But, if it is fertilized by the Pole Bean, a classific hybrid will be produced resembling both, and doubtless will be a climbing bean, but not the same as the male parent, or Pole Bean. The Bush Bean is regarded by many as a variety of the Pole Bean, and therefore the two readily hybridize when cultivated near each other. Care should always be taken to separate them at considerable distance; and so with all the culti vated species of the Phase°?us, or beans. yr, Sageret says the common cabbage (Brassica ole racea) will fertilize all the turnip-bearing species of the Brassica, as Brassica campestris, Bra,ssica rapa, and Brassica napus; but none of them will fertilize the cabbage. Thus it may be seen that the cabbage will intermix with the turnip, but the turnip will not intermix with the cabbage. .All the turnip-bearing species will, however, hybridize with one another. Therefore, when seeds are to be grown from the cabbage, turnip, colza, or rape, they should not be cultivated together. The intermixture of plants takes place only by means of their flowers, and conse quently no cross-breeds can be produced from cultivating the tubers of different varieties together. The different varietiesof the common potato will never intermix by their tubers, and they may be planted in the same hill without the least possibility of intermixture. They will, however, intermix through their flowers, like other plants, but no effect will be produced on the tubers by this intermixture; it is only in the seeds grown in the potato ball. The size of the tubers may be considerably increased by remov ing the flower-buds or the flowers from the stalks; and varieties that have never fruited may fre quently be made to blossom hy taking away a part of the tubers, that the nourishment may be thrown into the stalks and flowers. A greater profusion of flowers may also be obtained tbe next year from ornamental shrubs, than other wise would have been, by breaking off the blossoms of the present year before they go to seed. The inquiry whether varieties of plants will degenerate or run out, as it is sometimes termed, is one that has created much interest at different times, and is really of great practical importance to the agriculturist. There is no doubt that they will degenerate, and the degen eracy may result from various causes. There is a natural tendency, which has been verified by long observation, iu all plants to revert to their original species. They seem to be out of their natural sphere when brought into a high state of cultivation, and very much in the condition (If the savage who has been taken from his forest home and educated in some seminary of learn ing. He is constantly uneasy, and when the first opportunity is presented escapes to his native haunts, and joins his old companions in their revels and vices. Therefore, great care should be taken that the largest fruit and the best ears of wheat and corn may be selected in order that the choicest seeds may be procured and sown; otherwise the plants will degenerate in time, and most if not all the excellent qualities which they possessed will be lost. Prof. Lindley says: In all cases where any importance is attached to the result, the plumpest and heaviest seeds should be selected if the greatest vigor is required in the seedling. They may degenerate for want of proper culture. As culture has much to do in Ideveloping .new varieties, so the„ neglect of it will do much to destroy them, and there is no doubt that our best fruits, if removed frorn our orchards and gardens to their habitats in the forests, and reproduced 'from their seeds for a series of years, would be no better than the original species in a wild state. The delicious Newtown Pippin or the Pearmain would be no more agreeable in flavor than the little European_ crab-apple (Pyrus malus,) from which they probably originated. Prof. A. Gray, in his. Botanical Text-book, says: The races of corn, wheat, etc., which now preserve their character unchanged, have become fixed by centuries of domestication. Even these at times manifest an unequivocal disposition to return to their aborig inal stock. Were cultivation to cease, they would all speedily disappear; the greater part, perhaps, would perish outright; the remainder would revert, in a few generations of spontane ous growth, to the form of the primitive stock. The improving hand of culture must be contin ually upon them, or they will lose all their good qualities and become worthless. The natural cross-breeding of different varieties with those of inferior qualities is a very frequent cause of deterioration. This is often observed in grarn ineous, leguminous, and curcubitaceous plants, which are raised annually from their seeds. All the varieties of maize are very liable to deteriorate in this way. Those of the Sorghum succharatum intermix so freely that cultivators have found it almost impossible to obtain pure seeds. From the same cause it is extremely difficult to pre serve any of the varieties of the melon pure for any considerable time. No one can have any security of obtaining pure seeds unless they are planted many rods from all others, and the per fect flowers from which seeds are to be raised are covered with small tents of gauze of sufficient size to enclose each and protect it froin insects.
The judicious cross-breeding, however, of indi viduals of the same variety, when taken from a distance, will, as has before been observed, have a tendency to improve it. The mingling, even, of the sap of different trees, as in grafting, is sometimes not without its deleterious effects on the fruit of the engrafted scion; and the influ ence beconies more and more apparent the fur ther we get frotn the purity of the parent stock. It seems allowable, observes Prof. J. Lindley, to infer that the goodness of cultivated fruits is deteriorated by their being uniformly worked upon stocks whose fruit is worthless. The com mon apple, when grafted upon trees bearing very austere fruit, is injured by the crude and bitter sap of the tree on which it has been grafted. On the contrary, it is improved by being grafted upon a stock superior to its own. A scion, also, 'taken from a young tree which has never fruited, 'will be hastened in its growth when grafted on a mature tree, and bear sooner than it would if it had been left to itself. They may degenerate from effect of climate. A vine, for instance, --vvhich produces very delicious grapes in Ohio or Missouri may become very inferior in Newllamp shire or Maine. Certain fruits can not be per fected except in certain localities where the cli mate is particularly adapted to their growth and congenial to their nature. There are only a few countries where the grape will grow in perfee tion. There is no doubt that the climate has in many instanees more influence than the soil in causing degeneration of plants. We look to the sunny skies and bland atmosphere of Italy, France, Palestine, or California, for the highest clevelopment of the grape and the pear, but for the apple perhaps there is no better region iu the world than the middle section of the United States. Plants, then, should be selected that are adapted to the locality in which they are to be -cultivated, or otherwise degeneracy must be 'expected, labor will be thrown away, and no sat isfactory results can be obtained. The opinion is generally entertained by agriculturists that varieties which are raised from tubers and from seions or buds become weakened or degenerated by age. This was emphatieally denied by Prof.
Lindley, and as firmly maintained by Mr. T. A. Knight and others. Whatever the truth may be, the fact is obvious that varieties do degenerate by long-continued cultivation ; but the change may generally be ascribed to other causes than to age. In the ease of the potato the various elements of the soil that are peculiarly adapted to its grovvth may have been abstracted by fre quent planting on the same ground, so that the plant is actually starved from year to year. and thus weakened in constitution and dwarfed in size. It is often induced, also, from selecting for seed small tubers that are imperfectly ma tured, and have not secreted starch in sufficient quantity to give adequate nourishment to the new plant before its roots have been sufficiently -developed to enable them to draw the necessary nourishment for its support from the soil. Or, -when the practice of dividing the tubers has been adopted, they may have been cut into pieces so small that they do not contain enough of the necessary elements to produce a healthy and vig orous plant. In order, then, that there should be no deterioration, tubers should be selected -of good size, some of the largest, if they are sound and well formed, and cut into two or three pieces, if that plan is preferred to planting whole, according to their size. In this way the size vigor, and mealy qualities would be kept up, and a good and healthy crop be secured each year. Varieties of wheat, too, often degenerate for the same reason. A person who originates a new variety selects the ear, as we have before shown, -which contains the best seeds; and he sows them from year to year, and keeps sowing and select ing them and no others, and soon he gets a variety which is much improved. But as soon as it goes into the hands of the cultivator, all the seeds, the perfect and the imperfect, are sown promiscu ously and constantly, and the consequence is degeneration in a few years. Mr. Charles Dar win, in Variations of Animals and Plants, etc., volume 1, p. 379, says that, Colonel Le Couteur, in his persevering and successful attempts to raise new varieties by selection, began by choos ing the largest ears, but soon found that the grains in the same ear differed so that he was compelled to select them separately, and each grain generally transmitted its own character. From this statement it is evident that the largest grains should be selected for sowing each year. This might be done at a trifling expense by sift ing the grain through a sieve so prepared that the small kernels might pass through, and the large ones be retained in the sieve. Should this plan be pursued yearly there would doubtless be less complaint of the degeneration Of this crop. The soil, no doubt, has very much to do with keeping up the size and vigor of the plant both in the case of the potato and the wheat. The neeessary elernents, such as lime, etc., which conduce to their growth, should be supplied with watchful care, and the labor would be rewarded by most ample and satisfactory results. Too much stress, in every department of agriculture, can not be laid on the importance of providing the proper elements for the food of plants, whatever kind may be cultivated. One person, perhaps, finds his orchard going to pre mature decay, while his neighbor's is thrifty and produces abundant crops. He supposes that the location of his own is more exposed to the cold winds of winter, or that by some singular fatality injurious insects infest his trees more, but the thought never occurs to him that they are starv ing for the food which their nature demands, when at the same time his neighbors are well fed. It may be true that neither orchard is enriched hy manure from the stable, but one is located in a valley so as to receive a good manuring yearly by the hand of nature, while the other is on an elevation from which all the elements of growth wash away.