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or close pollinate them, but the above trials indicate that this is 

 impossible or practically so in pumpkins and squashes. An in- 

 stance in my own experience is suggestive. From stock which 

 was crossed in 1887, I obtained in 1889 one squash of great ex- 

 cellence. It appeared to combine more good qualities than any 

 squash of its type that I have ever seen. To procure as many plants 

 of it as possible, in order to cross and fix it, I planted all the see.ds 

 from the best fruit in the spring of 1890. These seeds, all from one 

 squash, produced 1 10 distinct varieties, and only one plant was like 

 the parent ! The only thing to do was to pollinate the flowers of this 

 one plant with pollen from itself, but it soon became evident that 

 all of these individual pollinations would fail. It was then neces- 

 sary, late in the season, to pollinate the remaining flowers from 

 some other plant which bore fruit the nearest like the one under 

 experiment. Fortunately, two or three other plants bore similar 

 fruits, and by the use of their pollen two good fruits were ob- 

 tained. 



It appears, therefore, that in squashes and pumpkins the pollen 

 is impotent upon pistils on the same plant, and that true inbreed- 

 ing does not occur in them. The experiment will be extended to 

 all varieties. 



4. Do cucumbers spoil musk-mclons f — If any dogma finds gen- 

 eral acceptance among horticulturists, it is the opinion that musk- 

 melons are rendered insipid and worthless by cucumbers growing 

 in their vicinity. Most growers suppose that this influence is im- 

 mediate, but a few hold that it appears only in the offspring of 

 supposed crosses between the two species. Several years ago my 

 observations led me to doubt this influence, but definite experi- 

 ments were not undertaken until last winter, when a house of 

 forced melons and cucumbers gave a good opportunity to make 

 cross pollinations. In these trials we failed to produce melons 

 when the flowers were pollinated either by the common white 

 spine or the English forcing cucumbers. 



Last summer the work was undertaken in the garden under the 

 best of opportunities. Ninety-seven musk-melon flowers of vari- 

 ous varieties were pollinated by cucumber pollen of many kinds. 

 No fruits developed. Twenty -five cucumber flowers were pollin- 

 ated by musk-melon pollen. Only one fruit developed, and that 

 was seedless. These figures certainly indicate that melons and 

 cucumbers do not cross, and therefore that the influence of one 



