secretary's budget. 389 



SMALL FRUITS. 



HYBRID RASPBERRIES. 



It seems strange that there should still be fruit-growers who doubt 

 that the different species of Raspberries can be changed and improved 

 by hybridization. Having been a practical experimenter for thirty 

 years, the restflts of some of my experiments in this direction leave no 

 doubt in my mind, and will furnish convincing proof to any one who 

 will take the trouble to investigate them. 



In the year 1843 I planted in my garden what we then called the 

 wild White-cap Raspberry, that bore hard yellow fruit, of very poor 

 flavor. In the summer of 1845, before the flowers opened, I cut out the 

 stamens of several of these flowers and removed all the other flowers 

 from the bush. At the proper time I applied pollen of Franconia to 

 the pistils of these flowers that had previously been deprived of their 

 own pollen. Most of the plants raised from the seed of the berries 

 thus produced strongly resembled the mother both in plant and fruit ; 

 Tooting from the lips of the young canes, and never throwing up 

 suckers. But two or three of these seedlings bore long, soft red ber- 

 ries, threw up abundance of suckers, and could not be induced to root 

 from the tips. Now I ask the unbelievers in these matter, " Were 

 these two or three red seedlings hybrids or not?" 



If there should still be any doubters, let me inform them of what I 

 did with these two red varieties above alluded to, and which I have al- 

 ways called hybrids. Believing that their natural characters had 

 been in a measure broken, and that I could again cross their flowers, 

 and by so doing I could in time combine all the good qualities of Rasp- 

 berries in one or two varieties. The following summer when they came 

 into flower I fertilized them with pollen from our best varieties, 

 amongst others, White Marvel of Four Seasons. The results of this 

 cross were some red, some white and some dark orange varieties, and 

 very much improved in fruit, but not one rooting from their tips like 

 their grandmother. From this generation of seedlings the three most 

 promising were saved, one light yellow, one orange, one red. 



But believing the acme of perfection had not yet been reached, 

 another attempt was made. This time the pollen of Belle de Fontenay, 

 Hornet and Brinckle's Orange were used upon the pistil of the yellow 

 seedling. The result from the seed of these being a great many dis- 

 tinct varieties, four of them being very promising. One is considered 



