October 19, 1912 



HOETICULTUEE 



637 



GREGOR JOHANN MENDEL. 



Although much has been written 

 these last few years in regard to Men- 

 del's law and by this time nearly 

 everybody has heard about it, there 

 are really few persons who can say 

 that they are acquainted with the life 

 history of the discoverer. 



Bateson, who has probably done 

 more than any other searcher to popu- 

 larize the theory of Mendel's law, has 

 also applied himself with infinite love 

 and sacrifice to the collection of all 

 the available data pertaining to a life 

 history of Gregor Johann Mendel. 

 ("Mendel's Principles of Heredity"), 

 Cambridge, 1909. 



Johann Mendel was born July 22, 

 1822, in Heinzendorf near Odrau in 

 Kuhland, a province of Austrian Sile- 

 sia. Heinzendorf. so to speak, repre- 

 sents a small island of German popu- 

 lation, surrounded by Slavs. 



From his father, a small tenant 

 farmer. Mendel early learned the art 

 of grafting. His uncle on his mother's 

 side, wlio seems to have been an intel- 

 ligent man and who did much for the 

 education of children by endowing spe- 

 cial classes of Instruction at his own 

 expense, helped little Johann along in 

 his earlier years at school. In the vil- 

 lage school Mendel showed such intel- 

 ligence that he was sent to a better 

 school at Leibnitz and later to tne 

 high schools at Trollau and Olmuetz. 

 To cover the expenses of this educa- 

 tion, Mendel was obliged to accept the 

 help of his sister who sacrificed part 

 of her dowry and for this act of kind- 

 ness Mendel felt himself indebted to 

 his sister for the rest of his life. 



Through the influence of one of his 

 teachers who was an Augustine monk, 

 Mendel, after completing his high 

 school term, became a candidate for 

 admission to the Augustine cloister of 

 St. Thomas (King's cloister), in 

 Bruenn. He was given the name of 

 Gregor and appointed to educational 

 work. In 1847 Mendel was conse- 

 crated priest and sent to the Univer- 

 sity of Vienna from 1851 to 1853 at 

 the expense of the cloister. He ap- 

 plied himself to the study of mathe- 

 matics, physics and natural history, 

 after which he taught at the polytech- 

 nical school of Bruenn until 1868 when 

 he was elected Abbott or Prelate of 

 the King's cloister. 



While still a novice at this cloister, 

 Mendel had already begun his experi- 

 ments in hybridization on the plants 

 in the large garden of the cloister. 

 From these experiments his name was 



to become famous all over the world. 

 After eight years of painstaking and 

 intelligent research into the field of 

 heredity, conducted through genera- 

 tion after generation of garden peas, 

 Mendel was convinced that he had 

 solved the problem of heredity and 

 submitted the result of his labors to 

 the "Society of Natural History" of 

 Bruenn in 1865. But his efforts found 

 no consideration with this body, nor, 

 after publication, did he meet with 

 any better success in the sessions of 

 similar societies elsewhere. His pub- 

 lications in regard to "Hieraclium 

 Bastards" met the same fate. Mendel 

 also experimented with bees, but un- 

 fortunately his observations in this 

 line, which were published under "Bee 

 Culture," have been lost. 



The appointment to the prelacy put 

 an end to the scientific researches of 

 Mendel. The fifteen years before his 

 death were filled with the work of 

 his position, more so as he applied 

 himself to fighting a state law, exact- 

 ing, in his estimation, unjust duties 

 of his cloister. These laws were even- 

 tually abolished shortly before his 

 death. This struggle at law changed 

 Mendel from a man of a jovial and 

 friendly disposition into a bitter and 

 mistrusting misanthrope. His health 

 began to fail and he died of Bright's 

 Disease January 6, 1884. 



Mendel was a man of great energy. 

 He published regular meteorological 

 reports and observations on sun spots. 

 He was presiding officer of the "Mort- 

 gage Bank of Maehren" and a cele- 

 brated chess player. His home town, 

 Heinzendorf, is indebted to him for 

 the installation of a fire department. 



The fact that Mendel's discoveries, 

 which are so plain and which have 

 been so universally verified, could 

 have been so long overlooked and neg- 

 lected, is almost inexplicable, more so 

 as Mendel corresponded with Naegely, 

 the great naturalist and acquainted 

 him with his investigations. Already 

 in 1861, the French Academy had of- 

 fered a price for a paper on plant hy- 

 bridization. Well-known naturalists 

 and scientists of the time busied them- 

 selves with the problem and came 

 near solving it, without, however, be- 

 ing able to clearly demonstrate the 

 principle. 



Bateson is of the opinion that Dar- 

 win's epoch-making theory, which at 

 that time revolutionized all the views 

 of the scientists and which was re- 

 garded as solving all questions in re- 

 gard to heredity, has been responsible 

 for the distracting of attention from 

 researches in this particular line. Dar- 

 win's theory really stopped all efforts 

 for a long time. We can hardly real- 

 ize to what extent Darwin might have 



been effected and how his theory 

 might have been shaped entirely dif- 

 ferent if Darwin himself had been 

 aware of Mendel's discovery. As it Is, 

 it was only a short notice in Focke's 

 work on "Plant Mongrels" (1881), 

 which in 1900 led to the discovery and 

 \erification of Mendel's work and 

 papers by De Vries, Correns and 

 Tschermak. 



From this dates a new era and when 

 Mendel said, as he did, "My time is 

 sure to come," he built his hopes upon 

 a sure foundation. Sure, it was fifteen 

 years after his death, but his time has 

 come. Mendel was very much ahead 

 of his time, but he has proven that 

 diligent application to one's ideals will 

 in time be fully appreciated. 



THE EFFECTS OF SOIL LIMING. 



At the meeting of the Lenox (Mass.) 

 Horticultural Society on October 5, 

 Professor Haskins of Amherst College 

 gave a splendid lecture on the use of 

 lime for horticultural and agricultural 

 liurposes. He said that the secondary 

 and indirect results which will follow 

 an application of lime must vary with 

 soil conditions, but the possible effects 

 which are of importance are that free 

 acid if present is neutralized and a 

 sour soil is sweetened, also that the 

 less soluble potash compounds of the 

 soil are rendered available and the 

 need of potash manure will be less- 

 ened at least for a time; but it must 

 be understood that liming will not per- 

 manently take the place of potash 

 manuring and if persisted in without 

 application of potash will ultimately 

 result in the exhaustion of the soil. 

 Various fertilizers such as sulphate of 

 ammonia will give poor results if the 

 soil has not first been heavily limed. 

 Lime is especially favorable to heavy 

 and clayey soils, it disintegrates the 

 clay particles and makes it more fria- 

 ble and permeable. It has also been 

 tested that the soil must have a heavy 

 coat of lime if one hopes to be suc- 

 cessful in growing a good crop of al- 

 falfa. The same also applies to all 

 kinds of fruit except the blackberry or 

 strawberry. Experiments have proved 

 that those do not particularly require 

 lime. The patch of land intended for 

 potatoes should not be limed the 

 same season the potatoes are planted, 

 but two or three seasons previous and 

 then the tubers are less likely to be- 

 come affected with scab. Mr. Has- 

 kins made tests with various soils 

 brought from the Westinghouse estate 

 which proved very instructive and 

 bore out his conclusions. 



Preparations for the exhibition on 

 October 24 and 25 are well completed. 

 Competition will again be very keen 

 and a great success is anticipated. 



ROSE HOUSES OF MILLER FLORAL COMPANY, FARMINGTON, UTAH. 



