Chapter 4 ON TRUENESS OF SORT IN ROOT CROPS.

The importance of trueness and purity of seed arises from the evenness of growth of a good genuine strain; while if this quality be wanting we have some parts of our crop growing well, whilst others get on but poorly. Thus a free-growing plant beside one over which it has got the advantage, maintains it for the most part through the whole period of growth.

Again, some sorts are of value for being early, others for lateness of growth, and some kinds are better fitted for early than late sowing; if, therefore, we have a mixture in these respects, we may at least expect a partial failure; for whichever is best for our purpose, if mixed will be accompanied by those which are not so good. A want of trueness to sort may arise principally from the following causes:-

1st. Want of selection in seeding bulbs.

2nd. Hybridization.

3rd. A mixture of seeds.

1st. The propriety of selecting the specimens from which seed is to be grown is admitted by all: by the seedsman, who always advertises his turnip and swede seed, for example, as being "from selected bulbs;" and by the farmer, as this announcement is only made to induce him to buy. It is not only important that the roots should be selected, but that they should be stored and then planted in a fresh soil; for as these latter are among the cultivative processes by which sorts have been obtained, so should they be repeated in order to ensure a continuance of the induced condition. Seeding upon the same soil and in the same bed in which the seed is sown is hardly the way to keep up a form induced by cultivation, as this is exactly what would be done by the plants in a state of wildness.

In selecting roots for seeding, care should be taken to choose good-shaped examples, in which a clean unbranched bulb, not too large, with a small tap-root and a small top, confined to a single central bud; a branched root and a many-headed top being true signs of degeneracy. And no less so is neckiness in swedes and mangels, as well as a coarse corrugated skin in roots of all kinds.

Taking such points as these into consideration, how absurd must appear most of the huge mis-shapen roots to which prizes are usually awarded at shows, where the specimens are chosen for size, and trimmed up with the knife, to make them look more presentable. As an evidence of the mistaken principles upon which prizes are awarded to bundles of roots, let any one seed such examples, and we will venture to assert that such seed would produce a large proportion of degenerate examples, without affording so good a crop as would seed, from middle-sized but well-shapen specimens.

2nd. Some of the forms of roots, and more especially those belonging to the Brassicace?, such as turnips and swedes, seem to have a wonderful facility for hybridizing; and this not only to the extent of one sort of turnip with another, but sports may be caused by the fertilization of the turnip with rape and its congeners. Indeed, the hybrid with turnip and rape is doubtless the origin of the Swedish turnip; but there is reason to believe that mixtures may accidentally be made with such wild plants as charlocks and mustards, the growth of which in the vicinity of a seeding crop tends to the production of degeneracy. Seeding-patches, then, and the ground about them, cannot be kept too clean.

Again, if trueness be aimed at, there should be no mixture of sorts in seeding examples; all of the same kind should be selected for seeding-plots, as even one or two of a wrong sort may result in a very mixed sample, as it would seem that sometimes strange plants exert more than ordinary influence.

Of course, the putting seeding-patches of different sorts side by side is to be reprehended. If more than one sort be seeded in a season, it is advisable to place the patches as remote from each other as possible. And we would here remark, that, for seeding, the roots should, as a rule, be farther apart than when grown for bulbs, both in rows and in sets; as, if too close, the stems grow up thin instead of robust, and a smaller seed, with a tendency to the growth of smaller roots, will be the result.

3rd. Mixtures of seeds should be avoided for the reason assigned, that "sorts" do not usually grow evenly; and when one sees (as is by no means infrequent) a patch of swedes overshadowed by a mixture of some large early turnip,-the Tankard, for example, our crop of swedes will certainly suffer for it, even supposing the turnip to be as useful as the swede, which is seldom the case.

Mixtures, again, do not come up at the same time; sorts may differ in this respect, but especially do old and new seeds vary as to their germinating powers: two-year-old seeds taking four or five days more to come up than a new sample; thus giving a greater chance for the ravages of the flea-beetle than where the seed all comes up quickly.

Now, as a practical application of these remarks, we here quote from an article in the Agricultural Gazette of May 24th, 1862.

Who among seedsmen does not profess to offer the seeds of swedes and turnips from selected bulbs? And though it is quite true that the practice is not so universal as is the profession of it, yet the general assumption of its being so on the part of seed growers and sellers is an admission that it would be for the advantage of the buyer of seeds were the roots from which seeds are to be grown carefully selected. And on the other hand, let the observant agriculturist take a journey on any of our great lines of railway (in early summer), and he will be struck with the many patches of bright yellow flowers which he will not fail to notice on either hand. In nine cases out of ten, these are fields or portions of fields of turnips, either the Swedish or common kinds, which, from the abundance of keep, it has been thought would be more profitable to seed than to eat off, especially as they have so rapidly grown out of the way. Are these patches of selected bulbs? We happen to know, from a more than ordinarily careful examination, that not one per cent. of seeding-patches are from selected roots; but they are seeded just as they grew, and we do not know of a single instance where in such seeding the objectionable roots have been removed; but we do know of plenty of cases where the worst part of a field has been saved for seed, doubtless as the most profitable way of dealing with it under the circumstances wrought out by the spring of 1862.

Of course, this will all come into the market, and too much of it, under a stereotyped declaration of 'from selected bulbs.' That all the seed grown in 1862 will be sown in 1863 is simply impossible; but no matter, it will find a market somehow, some time. With such facts as these before us, who can wonder that any plant should become degenerate? Let some of the seed of this year be watched,[17] and we will answer for its evil results; and if these be facts, it then behoves the farmer to look well to pedigree in the matter of his seed.

But even here, his forethought must not end; for however select the parent may be, there is still something in 'bringing up;' for, however good the sort of turnip, we shall not grow its seed in perfection by selection merely, but we should transplant well-chosen roots, and so put them in a new scene, away from subjects which might contaminate them. This is indeed to bring them up in a good school, for which their seed will amply repay the trouble and expense.

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