Gross-Fertilization. 63 



He took hold of the knife and endeavored to dissect them, but finding it 

 more difficult than he expected, and as he was not the man to be baffled over 

 a watermelon, he put on more power and forced the blade through and 

 turned open a jjreserving citron to the full view of his surprised guests. It 

 had a good effect, in teaching him never to take watermelons, however 

 plenty they might be, without consulting the owner. 



Here, then, we have evidence incontrovertibly establishing the fact that 

 natural impregnation does affect the pulp or flesh of fruit so treated, as well 

 as the seed, and that we have a sure indication when the seed have been in- 

 fluenced by the cross merely by inspecting and tasting the fruit, when we 

 are not sure that the seed are affected by artificial impregnation unless the 

 effect of the cross is manifested in the pulp or flesh of the fruit. Thus we 

 want knowledge, experimental knowledge, which is best of all ; hence the 

 importance of establishing agricultural experiment stations throughout all 

 the States, that all things may be tried and the best retained. 



Take a grain of wheat and one of barley, examine them, and is there a 

 chemist in the land who can tell, by analysis, which should be planted in the 

 fall and which in spring ? Or have we magnifying glasses of sufficient power 

 to determine whether a certain tree or plant will produce pollen the best 

 adapted to impregnate the pistils of the flowers on the tree or plant which 

 stands nearest? We have found out by experiment that the Sharpless and 

 Wilson strawberry do produce pollen congenial to each other, and especial!}' 

 to the Manchester and Crescent strawberry. Also that the Hautbois straw- 

 berrj"^ does not cross readily with any of our common varieties. Here then 

 we have a wide field open for experiment; let every fruit grower carefully 

 note his own observations and report them annually to this Society, whose 

 influence extends over the whole continent. About the year 1878, when 

 planting an orchard of standard Kieffer pear trees, we set a few dwarf Bart- 

 lett trees among them, thinking that would be a favorable plan for having 

 the blossoms on the low-growing Bartlett trees impregnated with the pollen 

 falling from the taller standard Kieffer trees in the natural way. My inten- 

 tion was to plant the seed of the Bartletts thus subjected to copious showers 

 of pollen falling from the Kieffers, and await the result of the new seedlings 

 grown therefrom. But last year we noticed some of the Bartletts had the 

 shape and outward appearance of Kieffer pears, and hung on the trees about 

 one month later than other Bartletts grown here, and attained a larger size, 

 measuring lOj inches around crosswise by 11^ around lengthwise; flavor 

 and quality of flesh and color of skin like the Bartlett; size and shape of fruit 

 iind time of ripening more corresponding with the Kieffer. 



Another illustration of the same principle : Last winter Charles Parry, 

 who lives adjoining us, removed a standard Bartlett pear tree, which had 

 borne fruit for several years, to make room for moving his barn. The 

 Bartlett tree thus removed was planted close by and nearly between two 

 large standard Kieffer pear trees. All three bloomed profusely, and bore an 

 abundance of fruit very similar in outward appearance to Kieffers. 



