Cross- Fertilization. 61 



Crescents fertilized with Sharpless we can at once see a resemblance, but of 

 all the Crescents I have ever seen it would have been mere guesswork to 

 have attempted to tell what variety furnished the pollen. 



If this theory is correct I hope to be convinced of it before planting time, 

 as it is my intention now to plant Crystal City with the Crescent. But I 

 don't want to reduce the size of the Crescent, for it is none too large, so 

 would change my plans, as, if the Sharpless increases the size, the Crystal 

 City, being small, would as certainly diminish it. 



I shall be glad to hear the experience and opinions of others at this 

 meeting. " 



Following which, Hon. Wm. Parry, of New Jersey, read a paper 

 on Cross-Fertilization : 



CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 



BY WU. PARRY, OF NEW JERSEY. 



The system of artificial cross-fertilization usually adopted in producing 

 new varieties of fruits, which, although attended with much labor and close 

 attention, and requiring a knowledge of botany not always possessed by 

 farmers and fruit growers, is very uncertain in its results, requiring several 

 years of patient watching, nursing, and tilling the young seedling before 

 any indications are shown as to whether the oflspring will be either better or 

 worse than the parentage from which it was produced. It has been said by 

 good authority that, after all this nice work, and waiting and watching, 

 happy is the man who gets one prize to a thousand blanks; and is it any 

 wonder, when we reflect how apt the pistil of the flower operated on is to 

 be mutilated and permanently injured by cutting away the stamens around 

 it with an unsteady hand, and then taking pollen from the flower of a favor- 

 ite tree or plant and applying it to the stigma of the blossom thus denuded 

 of stamens, without knowing whether there existed any congeniality or lik- 

 ing for each other between the pollen or stigma? Forced connections, con- 

 trary to nature, seldom produce happy results. Man has not yet invented 

 instruments with magnifying power sufficient to reveal all the mysteries of 

 nature ; and what is there more difficult of comprehension than the exist- 

 ence of all circumstances in the right quantities and at the right time and 

 place to produce the best results not only in creating life, but such a life as 

 will grow into a plant or tree and produce fruits superior to others of its 

 class ? That is beyond our power. We know that an acorn put into the 

 ground will, in time, become a large tree, but the cause of the necessary 

 transformation that must take place we know not, any more than we know 

 the cause of gravity which holds the heavenly bodies in their sphere. Better 

 leave those mysteries which we can not understand to a higher power, who 

 comprehends and does all things for the best, and we make use of the means 



