282 



GARDENING. 



June /, 



such a help towards thickening it, that it 

 is a temptation to prune it often. It 

 grows so fast that in three weeks new 

 shoots succeed the parts clipped away. 

 Hedges of it here receive three and some- 

 times four cuttings. The first one is given 

 quite early in June, the second, about 

 July 15, the third about two months 

 later. Well established hedges suffice with 

 this, but younger, vigorous ones, may 

 have the dates closer together, and a 

 fourth clipping added, to be given 

 towards the close of September. 



A little pinching in of the ends of grow- 

 ing shoots is of far more use than winter 

 pruning to trees and shrubs. The finger 

 and thumb will check the onward prog- 

 ress of a shoot, and in the place of the 

 point pinched off, there will be a half 

 dozen or so of side shoots. Trees and 

 shrubs both evergteen and deciduous 

 quickly become dense bushes and as 

 sy metrical as desired, when under the 

 care of a summer pruner. 



Fruit trees may be summer pruned to 

 great advantage. An unfruitful tree can 

 usually be made to flower by it. When 

 the growth is about two-thirds com- 

 pleted, which in the northern states will 

 be towards the close of July, cut away 

 about one-third of the length of the 

 young shoots. There is a slight check to 

 growth following this, and this is condu- 

 cive to fruitfulness, and asa result, flower 

 buds form for the next season. Many 

 prefer this plan to root pruning. Both 

 are on the principle that a check to 

 growth causes fruitfulness. 



The topping of blackberries and rasp- 

 berries is universally practiced in these 

 parts by commercial growers, but ama- 

 teurs have not all adopted the plan in as 

 much as relates to raspberries. Commer- 

 cial growers top the growing canes when 



they reach the height of two feet. Side 

 shoots result and a stiff central cane, 

 capable of sustaining itself without the 

 support of a stake. These bushes bear 

 more berries than those not so treated, 

 but the berries are hardly so large as 

 those on canes not pruned until spring. 



Clare. 



FLOWERS FROM FEAT MOSS, COAL ASHES 

 AND FERTILIZER CHEMICALS. 



For several years a soil of coal ashes 

 with three per cent, of peat moss added 

 has been employed at the Connecticut 

 Agricultural Experiment Station for 

 growing many different kinds of plants 

 under experimentation. This soil was 

 first used because it was known to con- 

 tain very little plant food. Fertilizer 

 chemicals could be added in varying but 

 known quantities and thus the fertilizer 

 requirements of the plant could be ascer- 

 tained. Tomatoes grown in experimental 

 cultures produced through five successive 

 crops a larger yield thancould be obtained 

 from a soil of rich compost. The accom- 

 panying illustration shows a bunch of 

 carnations grown in such a soil. The 

 very largest blooms in the vase measured 

 three inches in diameter. 



Last fall two small divisions or plots 

 situated side by side in one of the green- 

 house benches were filled with roses of 

 the I hichess de Brabant variety. One 

 plot was filled with rich compost and the 

 other with a soil of coal ashes and peat. 

 The plants grew well in both plots, and 

 up to May 1 each had produced as main- 

 blooms as the other, and there was prac- 

 tically no difference between blossoms 

 from the plants growing in the coal ashes 

 and those set in the compost. 



The fertilizer chemicals applied to the 



soil of coal ashes, calculated for a bench 

 space of 100 square feet, is as follows: 



Nitrate of soda, two pounds, twelve 

 ounces. 



Dissolved bone black, one pound, two 

 ounces. 



Muriate of potash, one pound, fifteen 

 ounces. 



The photograph herewith reproduced 

 shows one of the plants growing in this 

 kind of soil. W. E. Britton. 



New Haven, Conn. 



ROSE DUCHESS DE BRABANT GROWING IN COAL ASHES AND PEAT MOSS 



ADHERENCE TO TYPE IN SEED BREEDING. 



The highest quality and most practic- 

 ally valuable seed of a variety is not that 

 which from a large planting will produce 

 a few superlative plants but that from 

 which the largest proportion of theentire 

 product will be of fine type. Uniformity 

 of product is really the most important 

 object of the seed breeding, and to secure 

 it we must have, first, a clear conception 

 of just what in every particular an ideal 

 plant of the variety should be, and sec- 

 ondly, we must adhere rigidly to that 

 ideal in our selection of breeders from 

 year to year, and that we may do so it is 

 essential that we have on record a full, 

 minute and accurate description of the 

 ideal plant we are working to produce, 

 and select such plants, and such only, 

 for breeders, rejecting those that differ 

 from the ideal in any way, even if the dif- 

 ference is of itself an improvement. 



Every living organism is the result of 

 the balanced sum of hereditary influence 

 inherited from its ancestors, that of one 

 in a certain direction being modified by 

 that of another in a slightly different or 

 possibly directly opposite one. So that 

 the more nearly alike all these influences 

 are, the more certain and easily predicted 

 is the result. If we introduce into the 

 sum of heredity, through one or more an- 

 cestors, a moreorless prepotent tendency 

 in a certain direction, we disturb the bal- 

 ance and necessitate a new adjustment, 

 and it is not certain that the resulting 

 plant will be modified in the direction of 

 the new influence in just the proportion 

 that its numerical value bears to the 

 whole, and in a majority of cases it will 

 be found that some of the fruit will be 

 greatly modified, others not at all, and 

 stdl others will be changed in various 

 directions, some possibly in one directly 

 opposite to that of the new factor. 



To illustrate, suppose wehave avariety 

 of corn which is generally ten rowed but 

 occasionally showing an eight rowed ear 

 and which would be more desirable if the 

 ears were somewhat larger. We find a 

 plant with a twelve rowed ear, larger, but 

 in other respects like the type, and are 

 tempted to use it as a breeder, hoping 

 that the new twelve rowed tendency will 

 overbalance that to produce eight rowed 

 cars so that we would get rid of them 

 entirely and increase the size of the ten 

 rowed ears. It is possible that such 

 might be the result, but I know by costly 

 experience that there is greater probabil- 

 ity that the outcome would be an occa- 

 sional fourteen rowed ear, some twelve, 

 some ten and more eight rowed ears than 

 ever before; and while some of the ears 

 might be larger, many would be under- 

 sized, and we should find all sorts of vari- 

 ation from the type, so that our product 

 would be far less uniform and desirable 

 than before. 



My success in seed breeding has always 

 been in direct proportion to the clearness 

 of my conception of the ideal I was st riv- 

 ing to produce and the persistency with 

 which I adhered to that ideal in my 

 annual selection of breeding stock. < >ver 

 twenty-five years ago I had a live-acre 



