sap is here in part exhaled, while carbon and oxygen are alternately imbibed and given off. "In the daytime," says Professor Johnston, "whether in the sunshine or in the shade, the green leaves are continually absorbing carbonic acid from the air, and giving off oxygen gas. When night comes, this process is reversed, and they begin to absorb oxygen and to give off carbonic acid. But the latter process does not go on so rapidly as the former; so that, on the whole, plants, when growing, gain a large portion of carbon from the air." Thus does respiration keep up its unceasing work through the leaves or lungs, and, by appropriating from the air with nice discrimination precisely what the plant requires, and rejecting whatever is needless or hurtful, purify it from noxious elements, and minister to its healthful growth.

In whatever light, then, we contemplate this interesting plant, whether in its curious structure, or in the processes of its rapid and vigorous growth, or in the flowing and graceful outlines of its foliage, or in its tall, erect, and majestic stature, we equally recognize the hand of its Author, who has attested its value to man, by impressing upon it the stamp of nobility and clothing it in forms of beauty.

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF.

CALIFORNIA.

SEED.

I. SELECTION OF SEED FOR PLANTING.-That the quality of the seed planted by the farmer has a material influence on the quality and amount of the resulting crop is a matter that every practical man well understands. The importance, therefore, of giving the most careful attention to the selection of the seed is perfectly obvious. No man who neglects this essential point can place any reliance upon his crop. If his seed-corn is not properly sorted out, he cannot be certain of its kind, its value, or its results. If he does not know what he plants, how can he be expected to know what he is going to reap? His crop will be a lottery, with more blanks than prizes, and he can form no reasonable calculation in regard to it, either as to quality, certainty, or amount.

On the other hand, the man who in due season gives thoughtful heed to the selection of his seed, spending an ungrudged hour in his cornfield at the right time to secure the most perfect ears of grain, as the germ of a future crop, will be morally certain of at least a reasonable success. He has made a good

beginning for another season. The first step is well taken and in the right direction.

The following rules for the selection of seed-corn, suggested by the experience of practical cultivators, will perhaps be of service to the farmer as a guide in making his selection:

RULES FOR THE SELECTION OF SEED-CORN.

1. The most essential point to start with is a good variety. No correct farmer will plant or use on his farm any but the best grain. If, therefore, the corn you have been raising is an inferior kind, abandon it at once, and procure the best variety that will succeed in your locality. Begin with the purest and most perfect seed you can obtain, and you will easily be able to keep it pure, and make it continually better by attending to these rules.

2. Select your seed from those stalks that have the most ears, taking the best from each stalk.

3. The earliest ripe in the field is to be preferred, unless otherwise objectionable.

4. Those stalks that bear their ears nearest the ground are the best to choose from, provided the ears are right.

5. Select large, fair ears, with kernels of a bright, clear color.

6. Prefer those ears in which the rows are most regular, and the grain most uniform in size.

7. Choose those ears that taper the least, having their butts very little larger than their tips.

8. Of several ears on the same stalk, those that grow nearest the ground are to be preferred, if they have the other requisite points.

9. Select such ears as grow upon the shortest footstalk.

10. Those ears that are well filled out at the tips, with the grain covering the extreme end of the cob, are much to be preferred.

11. From each ear take the central grains, rejecting tips and butts. It has been satisfactorily proved that the kernels near the ends of the cob give a smaller yield and an inferior grain.

12. If you plant seed not raised in your own vicinity, let it be from a colder rather than a warmer region.

13. It is an excellent plan to appropriate a small piece of ground for raising seed-corn, at a distance from the main crop. In doing this, select a warm situation, free from excessive moisture, and let the ground be subsoiled or trenched, thoroughly pulverized, and well manured. Plant in hills four or five feet apart each way, with six to eight grains in a hill, thinning out afterwards to two or three stalks. The advantage of planting more than you intend to leave is not merely that it provides for worms and accidents, but it gives a chance for preference or selection. When the corn is up eight or ten inches, you will often find a material difference between the best and poorest stalks. You thus have an opportunity of selecting the best. The greater the number you have to choose from, the greater is the chance for perfection in those

selected. Your seed-corn being now well planted and fairly started, with proper attention and care in the further management of it, you cannot fail to secure a fair proportion of large and beautiful ears of perfect grain.

By following up this system, the farmer will discover, at the end of a very few years, that his corn has gained many fold in yield, and still more in quality. The advantage attending a discriminating selection of seed is well established by the uniform results of experience, and it seems incredible that any cultivator can be indifferent to a matter of so much consequence. He may bestow any amount of labor upon the tillage of his field, and any amount of expense upon the manure, yet if he plants an inferior grain, he can only gather an inferior crop. The difference between thirty or forty bushels per acre, and sixty or seventy bushels, may very possibly prove to be, in practice, a mere question of seed. Whether his crop will return him ten per cent. or fifty per cent. on the cost of it, may depend entirely upon the single hour that he did or did not employ in selecting his grain for planting. If such considerations as these, that go right into the farmer's pocket, are not sufficient to arrest his attention and influence his practice, his indifference may indeed be considered hopelessly incurable.

II. PREPARATION OF SEED FOR PLANTING.-It is a very general practice, with the best farmers, to steep the seed of this grain before planting, and the practice seems to be justified by reason and experience.