66 



The Journal of Heredity 



vvcrc not rc-iscd from hand hyl^ridizcd 

 seed, though this had been the original 

 intention. Sixty-two varieties were 

 grown as prospective parents, but cross- 

 ing jjroved impossible; no functional 

 pollen was formed. A few natural seed 

 berries were found, however, and from 

 them aft:r years of testing these five 

 kinds i^roved to be the fittest. Even 

 the records of the maternal parents were 

 lost, but the goal set at the beginning 

 was reached. New potatoes better 

 than the old Early Rose and Peachblow 

 were produced. Considering the amount 

 of time and s]3ace at command, it was 

 prol)ably the most successful practical 

 plant breeding experiment ever tried. 



In all of the other hybridization 

 work, Mr. Carman made careful castra- 

 tions of the flowers used as female 

 parents, protected the blossoms from 

 foreign pollen and made the crosses by 

 hand. "Guess work in hybridization 

 or crossing," he says, "is altogether 

 abominable, because it is impossible 

 to know whether anything has been 

 efifected or not, while the variations 

 sure to appear in the seedling plants, 

 it will be assumed, are evidences of 

 cross-bred parentage." 



One of the most interesting pieces of 

 work brought to a successful conclusion, 

 was a cross between the beardless AiTn- 

 stron , wheat and rye made in 1882. 

 Several varieties from this cross were 

 finally introduced, but whether they 

 battled successfully with pure wheats 

 or ryes, I have never heard.' The im- 

 portant thing was the variation in a 

 first hybrid generation which was con- 

 clusi\'ely demonstrated — work which it 

 would be interesting to repeat even now 

 as the constancy or comparative homo- 

 zygositN' of the jjarents was unknown — 

 and 'the ]jioneer work of showing the 

 possibility of making crosses between 

 these two gcnerically different cereals. 

 Mr. Carman saw the salient point very 

 clearly as the following quotation shows: 

 "What do they promise? If the hybrids 

 give us a grain less valuable than rye or 



wheat, nothing will Ijc gained in this 

 case, except the curious fact that a 

 cross between two different genera of 

 grain is possible. This established, 

 however, the way is oi^ened for further 

 hybridization the pregnant results of 

 wh'ch can only Ijc guessed at " 



Another int resting specific cross made 

 by Mr. Carman was between the black- 

 berry and the raspberry. It gave noLh- 

 ing of commercial importance, though 

 by repeating it Luther Burbank is said 

 to have produced a valuable berry. 

 Neither Mr. Burbank nor Mr. Carman, 

 however, was the first to make this 

 cross; Mr. Carman, himself, admits 

 obtaining the idea from William Saun- 

 ders of London, Ontario, who had pro- 

 duced similar hybrids some five years 

 before. 



WORK WITH SOLANUMS. 



Mr. Carman's taste evidently was 

 partial to the Solanaceae. He worked 

 for many years on tomatoes, and suc- 

 ceeded in i.solating from his various 

 crosses five types that were worthy of 

 introduction to the trade. They were 

 the Longkeepcr, Lemon Blush, Terra 

 Cotta, Autocrat and Democrat. Auto- 

 crat and Lemon Blush were known for 

 years as the finest of their kind. He 

 also crossed the common tomato with 

 both the Currant Tomato L. pimpinel- 

 lifolium and the nearly related genus 

 Physalis. Whether any valuable types 

 were produced from the first cross or 

 not, I have been unable to find out, 

 Ijut it was demonstrated that the first 

 hybrid generation was intermediate in 

 character and that a few of the indi- 

 \-iduals of the latter generations com- 

 l)ined a fairly large size of fruit with the 

 racemic tyjje of inflorescence. The 

 generic cross was not sufiiciently fertile 

 to be ])ro]jagated, and died out after 

 a couple of generations. 



Various other crosses of all kinds 

 kept w\) the interest of Mr. Carman in 

 his work, in which he was efficiently and 

 enthusiasticallv aided bv Mrs. Carman, 



' W. Van Fleet, who was associated with Mr. Carman in his lireeding work, states that none 

 of the real hybrid types survived continued propagation. Segregation occurred to such an extent 

 that the j)r<)geny soon became, to all appearances, either rye or wheat. None of tlic rye types 

 proved of particular value, but several of the wheat types are still in use. Farmers Bulletin No. 

 616 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, "Winter Wheat Varieties for the Eastern States," 

 recommends the soft "Rural New Yorker No. 57," one of Carman's creations. — The Kditor. 



