BREEDING OF NATIVE NORTHWESTERN FRUITS. 



77 



picked from small patches scattered through a plantation of culti- 

 vated varieties. The object of this work is to originate a strawberry 

 that will be perfectly hardy even without winter mulching. These 

 plants go into winter quarters in good condition and will, I hope, 

 begin to bear next year. The experiment will be repeated on a 

 much larger scale this winter. A new lot of seventeen varieties was 

 received in November, 1900, direct from France. I expect, how- 

 ever, that the best results will come from pure selection and am 

 prepared to fruit 200,000 seedlings or more if necessary within the 

 next three or four years to get the variety wanted, if that is possible, 

 and I believe it is. 



Two-year old Wild Gooseberry Plant. 



Two-year old Wild Black Currant. 



My methods are, in brief, an application of the principle laid 

 down by Darwin that "excess of food causes variation." In fact, I 

 think that variation can be compelled to appear by such methods 

 much sooner than by giving ordinary cultivation. The florist gives 

 high feeding and culture to plants and reaches results much sooner 

 than any other cultivator of plant-life by treating plants as individ- 

 uals. The first few generations, then, apply the florist methods to 

 any plant that we wish to modify or improve in any way. Break up 

 the plants by the tens and hundreds of thousands, and select from 

 these large numbers for the points desired. 



Crossing is resorted to whenever possible, as it hastens the 

 process of evolution by introducing new elements of variation. 

 Realizing, however, that crossing with tender cultivated species in 

 many cases has given a lessened degree of hardiness, the main re- 



