MAN'S BEST FRIEND. 191 



in all cases it is a good idea to use each plant for both male and female 

 parent. 



In the foregoing remarks I confined myself largely to fruits, but the 

 principles are the same for all plants. Great and interesting results can 

 be produced with vegetables, flowers, shrubs, and trees. And often the 

 breeding of annuals is practiced to a greater extent because results are 

 evident within one year as a rule. 



The potato is a good plant to work on, and especially do we need a 

 more disease-resisting variety. The structure of the potato flower is 

 very similar to the fruit flowers described above, at least in general. 

 It has one stigma in the center and five large stamens. Emasculate the 

 flowers just as described for fruit flowers and wait until the stigma be- 

 comes moist and sticky. Then cross with the desired variety. Also use 

 the paper bag and mark the flowers crossed. In fall the seed balls should 

 be gathered and the seed washed out and kept in a dry cool place until 

 early spring. It is then sown in a hot bed or flats kept in a warm 

 room. After the plants are two or three weeks old the little seedlings 

 are transplanted into paper pots or flats and then set out into the field 

 about the beginning of June, setting the plants the usual distance apart. 



If we are breeding for disease resistance then the plants should not 

 be sprayed, but to make the test severe let those die which can not with- 

 stand the ravages of disease, and then those few that do remain will 

 surely be resistant varieties. In fall when dug the hill with the best 

 looking and largest number of medium sized tubers should be saved and 

 propagated. This is the manner in which all new varieties have been 

 originated. 



For crossing purposes the wild forms of the potato are used to good 

 advantage, and these can be secured from some of the seed houses or 

 from the government bureau of plant introduction. 



MAN'S BEST FRIEND. 



A boy who had been born blind, but who had recovered his sight 

 through an operation, was asked to name the most beautiful thing in the 

 world. 



"A tree," he said, without a moment's hesitation. 



Folks who have had their eyes opened to the true beauty of this 

 passing world will go far toward indorsing this boy's choice. For a 

 tree, if not actually the most beautiful thing on earth, at least deserves to 

 rank high in the scale of beauty as applied to nature. Certainly there 

 is nothing in organic nature more stately and impressive than a great 

 tree — say an oak tree a thousand years old, or a sequoia that has stood 

 since the beginning of the era. 



This beauty with which a tree is invested in our eyes is due, not to 

 the lines of the tree in themselves — for it is not the most graceful and 

 symmetrical trees that look most beautiful to us — but rather to the inti- 



