Le Transformisme appliqué à l'Agriculture

Abstract

BY “transformisrn” Prof. Costantin understands the passage one species to another or the creation if new —Lamarckianism or Darwinism in contradismation to the older theories of men like Jordan Concerning the absolute fixity of species. The book in the main deals with plants, and consists of a general discussion of the meaning of a species and of such phenomena as garden varieties, bud sports, and graft hybrids, the effects of climate and soil on type, together with a summary of the work of de Vries on mutations and of Nilsson and the Svalof station on the improvement of cereals. It is a difficult and complex country, and as so much of the progress of agriculture must depend on the creation of improved varieties, the importance of a survey of the known and the unknown cannot be exaggerated. For example, if one may judge from the variation in yield among existing varieties of wheat, an increase of 10 to 20 per cent, in the maximum yield is not beyond the reasonable expectation of the raiser of new varieties. This increase involves the cultivator in no extra expense to speak of, whereas if he obtained it by means of fertilisers or more intensive cultivation, the added cost might easily consume all the extra return for the crop.

Le Transformisme appliqué à l'Agriculture.

By Prof. J. Costantin. Pp. 300. (Paris: Alcan, 1906.) Price 6 francs.