Mr. Miller:  I would like to ask—­I only grow for kitchen garden and I presume most of us are in the same boat—­we were told to plow a furrow deeply and fill it with good manure and to plant the roots with the crowns about four inches below the surface of the bed.

Mr Record:  Well, I wouldn’t fertilize it first.  I would, as I say, plow my furrow and loosen up the bottom of it, so that the plants will get a chance to get started.  You know if you are plowing it out or shoveling it out it will get down to hard ground.  That isn’t so good.  You loosen up the bottom and put your plants evenly over the ground and put in a little dirt, and if you have it a little barnyard manure.

Mr. Miller:  I suppose the idea of putting that in the bottom is that it is so hard to cultivate the manure on the top without doing as you mentioned?

The Running Out of Varieties.

PROF.  C. B. WALDRON, HORTICULTURIST, AGRI.  COLLEGE, N.D.

There is no fact more familiar to gardeners, orchardists and farmers than the “running out” of varieties, and no question that is more obscure as to its causes.  The possibility of deterioration of varieties is noted to a greater or less extent in all field and garden crops, particularly with those that are most highly developed, or which represent the greatest departure from the original species.

It is evident that the cause must lie either in the environment which surrounds the variety or in the selection which it has received, or in a combination of the two.  It is held also by some that aside from the influence of soil and climate, and in spite of the most rigid selection, there is an inherent tendency in varieties to depart in a more or less marked degree from the type in which they first appeared.  This is particularly true of new varieties that have not yet become established.  Almost before the plant breeder can determine their type they have broken up into so many distinct forms that it is impossible to get any further than the first generation.

This has been noted several times with new varieties of squashes and other cucurbits, and to a similar but less marked degree with tomatoes and some other garden crops.  These might well be termed evanescent varieties, and since they never become fixed or find their way into cultivation they are of interest only to the plant breeder.

The influence of environment, particularly soil and climate, upon the size, quality and productiveness of certain garden crops is well known, though just what effect this may have in determining the hereditary character of a variety has never been very well worked out and is still a matter of much doubt.  We know, for instance, that there is a tendency for corn grown in the middle or southern latitude to attain to a larger size and require a longer period for maturity than the same corn grown in the north.  This tendency is shown in the first generation, but whether it appears as a constant hereditary character or not is still open to discussion.