ley, but is not as reliable in all parts of the state as the above named varieties.

I have tried to recommend nothing but what will do well with good fair cultivation upon any good soil. Yet you will often be annoyed in selecting seed, from the fact that the same seed is sent out by different seedsmen under different names. For instance, I have had early peas sent to me under different names and by different seedsmen, and all planted on the same day, side by side, all cared for precisely alike, and all alike claiming to be remarkably early and prolific as well as excellent in quality, and yet every one of them precisely like the old Extra Early Dan O'Rourke that I used to grow, I do not know how many years ago.

The American Wonder is the only one of the new varieties that I have tried in many years that really seems to be an acquisition to our list. It is a dwarf about second early, and with me a good bearer, and of excellent quality. I mention this to show the farmer that as a rule it is better for him to rely upon the old standard list, until some grower with whom he is acquainted with has fairly tested the new variety, and ascertained whether or not they are worthy of cultivation, and some good common sense is all that is needed to insure a good farmer's garden. In twenty-five years I have failed but once to harvest at least a paying crop of strawberries, and most of the time they have been both large and profitable. During that time I have failed once to have a corn crop, and have failed a number of times to have a paying crop of potatoes; in fact, I have failed oftener with my potatoes than with any other of the long list of crops that I attempt to grow. Yet if I should say to the farmers of this audience that they did not kown how to grow a crop of potatoes, they would consider themselves insulted, though I presume that not one of them has had complete success with them for any long series of years.

Peas and onions should be put in as early as the land is in good condition to work in the spring. If the ground freezes hard soon after they are sprouted it will not injure them. Parsnips, beets, carrots, radishes, turnips, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and salsify will all bear a little frost after they come up, but not much.

Corn, beans, peppers, tomatoes, vines of all kinds require a warm soil and will do their best in no other.

A place for the wife and children's flowers should not be forgotten nor neglected. Give them a place, furnish help to prepare and care for it, and do not complain about the little time and expense it takes, either. Probably you will neither eat nor sell the flowers, but they will pay you better than a few extra bushels of wheat would. We are apt to hear complaints at our conventions that the young men will persist in leaving their farm home and seeking a new one in some of the towns or cities. Well, when I am traveling in our own and in other states and see so many desolate, dreary places that are called farm houses-no trees, no shrubbery, no fruit, no flowers, no garden, in fact, nothing but a shell of a house, and some land, and it is fair to suppose that it is about as cheerless inside the house as it is dreary outside of it, I often wonder how, or why, any bright, active, wide awake young man can stay there one day after he is at liberty to leave.

Gentlemen, I know that there are many beautiful exceptions to the above described homes, and that they are yearly becoming more numerous. If the exceptions could become the universal rule, what a glorious northwest we should have! Presidents of state agricultural societies would not have to warn their friends against attempting to get through the tangled mass of weeds called the garden. The man who has been to college would no longer fret because his vines could not grow. The president of the state dairymen's association would no longer buy cabbage plants or cabbage. Neither would he be compelled to order out his team and mow his garden before his conscience would allow him to teach others how to farm.

Instead of these, should be homes beautiful, homes bright, homes happy-so happy that the young would be loth to leave and glad to return. As our northwest is the grandest portion of our republic, so should our homes be the most beautiful, and the inmates thereof the most intelligent as well as the happiest and most contented citizens of our wide domain.

REMARKS ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF BREEDING.

By S. L. GOODALE,*

Upon few subjects connected with rural economy, probably upon no single one, is there greater need of diffusion of knowledge than in regard to the principles of breeding. Many engaged, more or less, in stock husbandry are utterly ignorant of them. With others who have studied somewhat, or perhaps have written upon the subject, the alpha and omega of their philosophy is embraced in the axiom that "like begets like."

Now, this axiom is a very good one, as far as it goes; and if our farm animals were now in the condition in which nature produced them, and if this condition best subserved the wants of the agriculturist, it would approximate nearer to a sufficient guide in breeding; but with domestication came in disturbing influences, and the effects of these have been deviations numerous and great; changes external and internal in form and in constitution.

By virtue of some of these changes, great improvement has been attained. Our most valuable animals are, in some sense, a manufactured article; and the skill which originated them is needful to continue and increase them, while ignorance of the physiological laws connected with their reproduction and improvement will serve to perpetuate and multiply lamentable deficiencies, defects and general unprofitableness.

The object of the husbandman, like that of men engaged in other avocations, is profit; and, like other men, the farmer may expect success in proportion to the skill, care, judgment and perseverance with which his operations are conducted.

The better policy of farmers generally, is to make stock husbandry, in some one or more of its departments, a prominent aim that is to say, while they shape their operations according to the circumstances in which they are situated, these should steadily embrace the conversion of a consid

*Author of "The Principles of Breeding, or Glimpses at the Physiological Laws Involved in the Reproduction and Improvement of Domestic Animals.”

erable portion of the crops grown into animal products, and this because by so doing they may not only secure a present livelihood, but best maintain and increase the fertility of their lands. In fertile grain-growing districts, like our prairie states, the importance of maintaining fertility is often unheeded; but the deterioration, by undue cropping, is not less sure, although tardier in manifesting itself, than where the natural resources of the soil are less abundant.

The object of the stock-grower is to obtain the most valuable returns from his vegetable products. He needs, as Bakewell happily expressed it," the best machine for converting herbage and other animal food into money." He will therefore do well to seek such animals as are most perfect in their kind - such as will pay best for the expense of procuring the machinery, for the care and attention bestowed, and for the consumption of raw material. The returns come in various forms. They may or may not be connected with the ultimate value of the carcass. In the beef-ox and the muttonsheep, they are so connected to a large extent; in the dairy cow and the fine-wooled sheep, this is a secondary consideration; in the horse, valued as he is for beauty, speed and draught, is not thought of at all.

Not only is there a wide range or field for operations, from which the stock-grower may select his own path of procedure, but there is a demand that his attention be directed with a definite aim and towards an end clearly apprehended.

The first question to be answered is, What do we want? and the next, How shall we get it? What we want depends wholly upon our situation and surroundings, and each must answer it for himself. In England, the problem to be solved by the breeder of neat cattle and sheep is how "to produce an animal or a living machine, which with a certain quantity or quality of food and under certain given circumstances, shall yield in the shortest time the largest quantity and best quality of beef, mutton, or milk, with the largest profit to the producer and at least cost to the consumer." But this is not precisely the problem for American farmers to solve, because our circumstances are different. Few, comparatively, at least in the northern states, grow oxen for beef alone, but for labor and for beef, so that earliest possi

ble maturity may be omitted and a year or more of labor intervene before conversion to beef. Many cultivators of sheep, too, are so situated as to prefer fine wool, which is incompatible with the largest quantity and best quality of meat. Others differently situated in regard to a meat market, would do well to follow the English practice, and aim at the most profitable production of mutton. A great many farmers, not only of those in the vicinity of large towns, but of those at some distance might, beyond doubt, cultivate dairy qualities in cows to great advantage, and this too, even if necessary, at the sacrifice to considerable extent of beef-making qualities. As a general thing, dairy qualities have been altogether too much neglected in years past. Whatever may be the object in view, it should be clearly apprehended, and striven for with persistent and well-directed efforts.

To buy or breed common animals of mixed qualities, and use them for any and for all purposes, is too much like a manufacturer of cloth procuring some carding, spinning,. and weaving machinery adapted to no particular purpose, but which can, somehow, be used for any, and attempting to make fabrics of cotton, or wool, and of linen with it. I do not say that cloth would not be produced, but he would assuredly be slow in getting rich by it.

The stock-grower needs not only to have a clear and definite aim in view, but also to understand the means by which it may best be accomplished. Among these means a knowledge of the principles of breeding holds a prominent place, and this is not of very easy acquisition by the mass of farmers. The experience of any one man would go but a little way towards acquiring it, and there has not been much published on the subject in any form within the reach of most. Indeed, from the scantiness of what appears to have been written, coupled with the fact that much knowledge must exist somewhere, one is tempted to believe that not all which might have done so, has yet found its way to printer's ink. That a great deal has been acquired we know, as we know a tree by its fruits. That immense achievements have been accomplished is beyond doubt.

The improvement of the domestic animals of a country so