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 _Brassicaceæ_, 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, 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.