100 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thumb nail and thence onto the stigmas. If the plants blossom at differ- 

 ent time the pollen may be kept in small glass bottles for a few days 

 and sometimes it is also advisable to try and retard the period of blos- 

 soming by various methods, such as mulching in the case of strawberries 

 and heeling in and keeping the plants frozen later than otherwise by a 

 heavy mulch, but the tops must be covered entirely. This latter method 

 is used for retarding the bush fruits and sometimes even trees. 



After the pollen has been applied and you are sure that some of the 

 pollen has adhered to the moist stigma, then the bag should again be 

 placed over the flower and a label attached giving names of parents and 

 date of crossing When the fruit or seed is ripe the seeds should be 

 washed out and either planted at once or stratified until the following 

 spring. 



Strawberries and the bush fruits are best planted at once in fiats 

 in rich sandy soil and kept in the hot bed or greenhouse until well up. 

 When the third leaf is developed they should be transplanted into paper 

 pots or flats, and in August or September they can be set outside into 

 frames so that winter protection- can be given. Sometimes, if the plants 

 are not big enough to set outside, they must be over-wintered in the cel- 

 lar or a greenhouse. The grapes, apples, cherries, and plums are best 

 stratified until the folowing spring or until fall when they are planted. 

 With these last-named fruits the practice is often to graft them to older 

 stocks so as to get fruit sooner. This grafting can be done the first or 

 second year. 



The plant breeder should try to get as many of the native wild fruits 

 and plants as possible and plant them near the named varieties. These 

 are all valuable for crossing purposes, especially if we wish to produce 

 hardy and vigorous kinds. The various named varieties can often be 



Fig. 3. Showing the paper bag covering the emasculated flower 

 bud and the label showing names and date of the cross. 



crossed with extra good results. Some examples of crosses that could 

 be made are given: Concord x Beta, Beta x Delaware, Perfection x 

 Red Dutch, Houghton x Downing, King x Cuthert, Snyder x Rathburn, 

 Compass x Surprise, and many others. 



Sometimes it is difficult to know which plant should be used for the 



