Qualify of Seeds.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 100, 25 September 1908, Page 3

Qualify of Seeds.

The influence of the character of the seed on the crop that will be produced

from it is well known as a general fact. But it is probable that more detailed attention than is very often given to the matter would well repay the trouble entailed. It is becomingbetter understoood than formerly that the very early life of a plant has an overwhelmingly important influence on its subsequent growth. Thus it is a matter of common experience that some plants rapidly improve if grown even for a few generations under specially favorable conditions. This is certainly to be attributed, in great part at any rate, to the cumulately favorable start in early life enjoyed by the plants themselves. The environment thus continues to influence the development through several generations and in a cumulative fashion. This circumstance has given rise to a certain amount of confusion as to the existence of inheritance of acquired characters. Probably what has really occurred is that the accumulated wealth of one generation serves to endow the seeds of the next with more capital in the form of food, and this will produce its effect during the youthful and more important period of growth in the seeding. This view is supported by the ease with which such improved races degenerate when favorable conditions are relaxed. Such considerations, which are borne out by facts, serve to emphasise the desirability of more thoroughly studying the relations that exist between the various properties of the seed and the quality of the progeny that will arise from them. The matter is not new, but it is still worth a very careful scientific investigation, and the results are certain to be of practical value.