10 



HORTICULTURE 



January 6, 1906 



it is any improvement on the best plum or the best of 

 ordinary apricoi s. 



There is too much exaggeration going on today in 

 the case of new productions, be they fruit, flowers or 

 vegetables, as witness the so-called seedless and core- 

 less apple which upon investigation as to its origin 

 recently made by the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington has been found to date back for something 

 Like ".'000 years. After all. the practical results of cul- 

 tivation, selection, and hybridism, and cross-breeding 

 are wonderful enough without any booming or exagger- 

 ation whatever. And yet the processes of improvement 

 in the garden, so far as the crossing of species is con- 

 cerned, are often experiments conducted in a rough 

 and ready way. Of course, this is better than not 

 exijerimenting at all, but certainly not enough for the 

 realization of the best results. If a chemist, or even 

 a cook, were to attempt the blending of drugs or 

 materials of which they knew little or nothing by prior 

 experiments or previous teaching, we should probably 

 suffer from their compounds; but the majority of 

 hybridizers often attempt the rearing of plants from 

 parent species that are practically unknown to them. 



It must strike any ordinary observer that before we 

 can ever know the true effect that one species may exert 

 upon another, it is necessary to know the natural 

 amount of variation of both the species used. Thus, 

 before hybridization is resorted to we should grow both 

 the parent species selected from their own seed, so as to 

 observe their character and the amount of their varia- 

 tion. Unless this is done, wo are working in the dark, 

 and are pretty sure to confound the effects of hybridism 

 with what is simply natural or seminal variation. 



There are in cultivation in gardens today plants like 

 the Chinese primula, the Persian cyclamen and other 

 flowers that, so far as is known, have never been 

 hybridized with other species. They are simply cross- 

 bred selections from one species instead of from two, 

 and still they vary even more than do many hybrids 

 between two species. It would appear, then, that it is 

 only reasonable to experiment and find out as far as 

 possible the range of variety in each of the two parents 

 before we can confidently speak of their offspring as 

 being the result of the union effected. As shown by 

 examples like the Chinese primrose, etc., some species 

 possess an infinite and inherent capacity for variation, 

 apart altogether from hybridism in its true sense, while 

 on the other hand, there are some species that practi- 

 cally never vary until hybridized with others. 



So far as individuals are concerned, one can scarcely 

 blame them for taking a short cut, since our days are 

 tee short for one man to obtain many results in his own 

 lifetime. This is why the work is best done under 

 Gi ernment supervision. The individual matters but 

 little in a State Department, where work is organized, 

 and can be carried as long .is it is necessary. The 

 tendency, again, of individuals is to do not what is 

 best in an ideal manner, but what is likely to prove 

 ifitable and this last is a contingency that a 

 Government institution can afford to disregard. So 

 far. without a doubt, the finest results of hybridism 

 have been obtained in private gardens, and this, too, 

 thanks i>> no help from Government. 



A New Year's Reverie 



The efforts w : e make for any worthy object may 

 not seem successful t<>da\ or tomorrow, but they are 

 a part of the grand work that is going on slowly but 

 surely and no one of them can we afford to lose. 



The year of 1905 has been a remarkable one in many 

 n speets in Boston, but what I have noticed most is 

 that there has been a great drawing together of the 

 different lines in the florist business and its allied trades. 

 How it has been attained I am not in a position to say, 

 but it is plain to any casual observer. 



This is as it should be. The florists as a class are a 

 genial and a happy lot of men who congregate together. 

 The private gardener and the florist have become better 

 acquainted with one another and are imparting knowl- 

 edge each to the other, and coming together as never 

 before; a little leaven has been put in which is leaven- 

 ing the whole lump. A good work has been started and 

 with the New Year let us resolve to help it along. The 

 millennium has not come yet, but we can by individual 

 effort bring about something nearly as good. Grasp a 

 brother by the hand, and give him a hand clasp, not the 

 dudelet or society shake, but do it so that he will know 

 that heart and hand are one. 



"That man to man the world o'er 

 Shall brothers be for a' that."' 



That editorial entitled "The highest bidder," in last 

 week's Horticulture should be committed to memory 

 by all growers and filed away for ready reference. The 

 wholesaler who has the growers' interest at heart gen- 

 erally has to use great judgment in allotting flowers 

 in times of scarcity, and it is the man who has stood 

 by the wholesaler and bought heavy in dull times who 

 should get the cream of the product at a fair price. 

 The man, who, in times of stagnation (trying to lower 

 winter prices) shows a letter from parties who perhaps 

 are trying to unload goods by offering a winter scale of 

 prices which the wholesaler knows his growers would 

 not stand for, and in his judgment refuses to meet — 

 this is the man who, having perhaps got left on his 

 cheap contract, comes to the wholesaler at Christmas 

 and invoked his aid, forgetting about his bunco game 

 some months previous. This is the man that should be 

 made to pay and that to the limit. I am glad Horti- 

 culture took the stand it did, for it will help to clear 

 the air, cement more firmly the relations between whole- 

 saler and grower, and give a lesson to the buyer that in 

 times of peace he should prepare for war. 



Our Frontispiece 



Our frontispiece Ibis week shows one of four large 

 houses of Carnation Robert Craig as growing at the 

 present time al Cottage Gardens where this phenomenal 

 scarlet variety originated. Nothing more luxuriant in 

 growth and habit can be imagined. Mr. Ward informs 

 us that from September to November last the average 

 product per plant was from three to seven flowers. It 

 will lie seen in all its glory at the Boston meeting. 



