PLANT BREEDING FOR NEBRASKA. 187 



for whose benefit this plant-breeding farm shall work, let us endeavor to 

 bring it to life so that in the near future we shall have a well-equipped 

 horticultural plant-breeding farm in operation. Then I am confident that 

 we shall see some great and very beneficial results from it. 



In closing I wish to state that sooner or later our state will do just 

 what I have here suggested. We need this plant-breeding farm, and I 

 dare say that our State Horticultural Society will be instrumental in 

 bringing this about. Let us start at once our propaganda, let us enlist 

 the aid and good will of every citizen, and farmers especially, in this 

 movement, and as soon as there is popular demand for it, we shall see 

 our plant-breeding farm in reality. 



PLANT BREEDING FOR NEBRASKA. 

 Max Pfaender, Mitchell, Nebr. 



Plant breeding is very interesting and fascinating work for the horti- 

 culturist. As a rule we think that hybridizing or crossing and the grow- 

 ing, selection, and propagation of new varieties is only to be performed 

 by professors and government scientists. Not so, however. Every horti- 

 culturist who will interest himself in plant breeding can do this work 

 if a little practice is had and the few fundamental principles are under- 

 stood. 



First I shall give very briefly just one important part of the theory 

 of plant breeding. Here we have, for instance, tw'o varieties or species 

 of a fruit or vegetable, the one is hardy, vigorous, and prolific, but the 

 fruit or vegetable born by it is poor of quality and small. The other 

 one is rather tender and a shy bearer, but the fruit or vegetable is of 

 very good quality. Now we would naturally prefer to have a plant that 

 would combine in itself the good qualities of both and lack their poor 

 characteristics. In order to produce such a plant we would cross or 

 hybridize the one with the other and from the resulting seeds grow as 

 many seedlings as possible. Of these seedlings the strongest and most 

 promising are kept and the rest discarded. When the plants bear the 

 final test is made, the best fruited ones are kept and propagated, either 

 by cuttings, layers, or grafting. 



For beginners this is really all of the theory that we need to know 

 and in short can be stated as follows: To improve plants we cross a 

 plant having certain desirable characteristics with another plant of the 

 same or a similar species having other desirable characteristics, thereby 

 aiming to unite into one plant the good qualities of both parents. 



Before discussing the practice of a plant breeding we must first get 

 a rudimentary knowledge of the flowers and sexual organs of plants. I 

 shall try to confine myself to some of the more common fruits because 

 these have large flowers and are not complicated. 



As a rule we will find both male and female organs present in the 

 same flower. The pistil with the stigma at its end is the female organ, 

 and is always found in the center of the flower. Sometimes there are 



