346 



* * • GARDENING. 



Aug. /, 



require any particular situation. Prob- 

 ably a cool, partially shaded one would 

 suit it best. Joseph Meeiias. 



Philadelphia. 



ARSENIC AS fl SUBSTITUTE FOR PARIS 

 GREEN. 



In many sections Paris green is almost 

 always employed in the destruction of 

 the Colorado beetle and similar insects, 

 but as it now retails at from 20 to 30 

 cents per pound, it is quite expensive, 

 particularly as it often seems ineffectual, 

 owing to its probable adulteration. As 

 arsenic is the poisonous element in Paris 

 green, of which it constitutes about fifty 

 per cent, many are now testing it as a 

 substitute, with good results. Common 

 white arsenic can be bought at drug 

 stores for about ten cents per pound, and 

 as it is twice as effective as Paris green it 

 will be rather less than one-fourth as 

 expensive. 



Although but slowly and sparingly sol- 

 uble in water, arsenic cannot be used in 

 solution as it is likely to burn the foliage. 

 While there are other ways of preparing 

 it for use, the cheapest and best is to 

 unite it with lime, thus forming arsenite 

 of lime, which, except for the coloring 

 matter, is practically the same as London 

 purple. The lime should be fresh, un- 

 air-slaked, and should be prepared the 

 same as for mortar, or Bordeaux mixture. 

 One pound of arsenic and two pounds of 

 slaked lime should then be placed in two 

 gallons of water and boiled for forty 

 minutes. When ready for use it can be 

 diluted with water, or added to an equal 

 amount of Bordeaux mixture. For use 

 upon potatoes one pound of arsenic, pre- 

 pared in this manner, will be sufficient for 

 200 gallons, and for 300 to 4-00 gallons 

 for most other plants, or twice the 

 amount with which Paris green would 

 be used. The addition of ten to twenty 

 pounds of lime to 200 gallons of the pre- 

 pared material will aid in holding the 

 arsenic upon, and lessen the danger of 

 injury to the foliage. 



When the poison is applied in atomiz- 

 ers the amount should be considerably 

 increased; thus to one pint of water one 

 gill of the stock solution should be used, 

 with as much lime as can be kept in sus- 

 pension. 



Whatever the insect for which it is used 

 the best results cannot be obtained unless 

 the application is made before the pests 

 have become full grown, and so thor- 

 oughly that all parts are covered by it. 

 L. K. Taft. 



Miscellaneous. 



AMERICAN SEED GROWING. 



SELECTION OF PLANTS FOR SEED BREEDING. 



Every living organism has a character 

 distinct in a greater or less degree from 

 that of every other. This individuality is 

 the outcome and expression of the 

 balanced sum of the influences it has 

 inherited from its ancestors, plus that of 

 its environment, but in different individu- 

 als the influence of a common ancestor is 

 not necessarily of the same numerical 

 value in the making up of the sum of 

 influence; it is rather as if the influence of 

 each ancestor was represented by a digit 

 and the sum of influence was expressed by 

 these digits written in an order which 

 varied in each case, the individual charac- 

 ter depending upon the relative potency 

 of the influences which go to make it up. 



Of a lot of pigs or puppies born of the 



same parents and in the same litter one 

 may be like the father, one like the mother 

 another like some ancestor several genera- 

 tions back, and still another be a curious 

 blending of the characteristics of the other 

 three; again two of them may be so alike 

 in appearance that they cannot easih* 

 be distinguished, but while all the prog- 

 eny of one may be like itself, those of the 

 other may bear little resemblance to their 

 sire or to each other. This same law, or 

 seeming lack of la w, in hereditary influence 

 which is so easily seen in animals exists 

 just as truly in plants, though it is not so 

 easily traced. Of eight peas from the same 

 pod four may produce plants practically 

 identical with the one on which the seed 

 grew, while each of the others produce 

 plants very unlike those from the first 

 four, or each other, and of these all the 

 seed of one may give plants like itself 

 while that from the others produce plants 

 of endless variety of form and color. 



This varying degree of power which 

 every living organism has to impress its 

 characteristics on one or all of its descen- 

 dants is correlated with life itself and is a 

 part of its mystery; we do not under- 

 stand it, nor the laws which govern it, 

 we may never be able to, but we can and 

 should recognize the fact of its existance 

 and use it to our advantage. Though 

 ability to reproduce itself is a quality 

 which we cannot discern by our senses 

 even if we bring to their aid the most 

 powerful of microscopes or the most deli- 

 cate chemical tests, it is just as much a 

 characteristic as is color or form and is of 

 the utmost importance in securing 

 uniformity of product. 



That prepotency can be fixed so as to 

 become a characteristic of a strain of 

 seed is certain. How it can be done may 

 be best shown by an illustration. In the 

 case of the successful breeding of a certain 

 variety of corn which was referred to in a 

 previous article the seed breeder went into 

 the field with a carefully prepared descrip- 

 tion of just what in every particular an 

 ideal plant of the variety should be and 

 how much variation from that ideal 

 would be permissible in a breeding plant. 

 He selected the ten plants which came the 

 nearest to his description, and the seed of 

 each was saved and the next spring 

 planted separately, but in contiguous 

 blocks. In the fall each lot was carefully 

 examined plant by plant to ascertain in 

 which one of them the largest proportion 

 of the plants were within the prescribed 

 limit of variation and from that lot the 

 breeding plants for the next year were 

 selected and this selection of breeders from 

 the lot which furnished the most uni- 

 formly good product was continued from 

 year to year. Generally, he could make a 

 selection of better plants from all the 

 blocks than could be found in the chosen 

 one, and often a better ten could be found 

 in a block where a smaller proportion of 

 the plants were of the desired type, but 

 the breeding was rigidly held to the line 

 which showed by its uniformity that it 

 had the greatest prepotency and in this 

 way a wonderfully uniform stock was 

 developed. 



In the fourth or fifth year of this selec- 

 tion one lot showed a very remarkable 

 ability to resist drought. The plants were 

 fairly true to type and this new quality 

 was so desirable that the seed breeder 

 was tempted to save his breeders from 

 that lot but resisted it and saved them 

 according to rule, but he also saved the 

 ten best plants from the new departure 

 and planted the seed in a lot by itself. 

 The result was that only a very few of the 

 plants showed the drought resisting 

 quality so noticeable the year before and 



all of the ten blocks varied more and had 

 a smaller proportion of plants true to 

 type then had any single lot since the first 

 year. Had he yielded to the temptation 

 to improve his type and taken his breed- 

 ing stock from this lot he would have lost 

 the good of four years selection. Doubt- 

 less by selecting the best plants from the 

 lot which furnished the most drought 

 resisting plants and continuing such 

 selections for several years a new and 

 valuable variety might have been estab- 

 lished but, as we have said, the most 

 important work of the seed breeder is the 

 development of a stock which will come 

 true to type rather than the production 

 of a new sort, no matter how desirable, of 

 which only a small proportion will come 

 true. A long experience in seed growing 

 convinces me that the formation of a clear 

 and well defined idea of just what a plant 

 of any variety should be, a rigid adher- 

 ence to just that type in selection, and 

 breeding only from those plants which 

 show a strong tendency to reproduce 

 themselves is the only way to produce 

 seed of the greatest value. 



Will W. Tracy. 



INFERIORITY OF TYPE. 



Mr. Tracy's articles on seed growing 

 and plant breeding are extremely inter- 

 esting, pointed and valuable. Personally 

 I know very little about seed growing, 

 and my observations on plant breeding 

 are mostly from the work of other men. 

 But the man who grows plants of any 

 kind and pays close attention to the way 

 in which they develop is bound to draw 

 some rather positive, and, I believe, fairly 

 accurate conclusions as to how thev are 

 b:ed. 



Now there are two things for which 

 the seed grower and plant breeder maj - 

 strive — new forms and purity of old 

 forms. In other words he may originate 

 new varieties, or he may fix them after 

 they are originated. I say he may fix 

 them, for unfortunately he does not often 

 do that. While there is a very laudable 

 and effective activity in this country in 

 the production of new varieties, there 

 seems to be an unfortunate insufficiency 

 of effort in fixing good types, especially 

 the more highly bred and persistently 

 variable forms. It thus occurs that 

 while we have an abundance of new vari- 

 eties which, when true to type, are very 

 satisfactory and very creditable to the 

 originators, a very large number of them 

 are so variable and unstable that they 

 can not be depended on, especially when 

 they fall into unskillful hands or receive 

 indifferent cultivation. They do not hold 

 to their fancy characters, but break up 

 and revert to several very inferior types. 



To be sure there is in this no moral 

 misdemeanor on the part of the seed 

 grower. It is merely a question of busi- 

 ness. The seed buyers seem willing to 

 pay a great deal more for new varieties 

 than for well fixed varieties, and as the 

 former require less work in their produc- 

 tion, no one can blame the plant breeder 

 for working merely for new types But 

 seed buyers make a very serious mistake 

 in taking this attitude. Take musk- 

 melons for example. A grower is much 

 better off to grow a well fixed strain of 

 Hackensack or Jenny Lind than to spend 

 his time on some much fancier variety 

 which, however, shows only fifty to sixty 

 per cent of the highly bred type, with 

 forty to fifty per cent of mediocre, un- 

 uniform reversions. The same thing is 

 true of sweet peas, asters, zinnias and all 

 flowering plants where the production of 

 new varieties has come to be a commer- 



