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one crop affects that succeediug' it. Experience Las taught that timothy 

 and clover ialce better when sown with rye than with wheat, and nature 

 almost always dictates nicely in the operations of agriculture. It may 

 be that rye affords an essential element in a proper and natural rotation, 

 and it is earnestly suggested that in the order of crops it be restored to 

 the place it held some forty years ago. 



The second suggestion which I have to make is, that the various 

 varieties of wheat are supposed to become so 'mixed as to lose their 

 identity. It is in vain that the earliest and best seed is sought after if 

 its i)roduct be negligently commingled in the barn, by accident or de- 

 sign, with other wheat having entirely different, and may be indifferent, 

 qualities. It should be remembered that wheats grow differently, ripen 

 at different periods, and when ground, require different treatment. It 

 is a matter, then, of no little consequence that they should be preserved 

 in their original purity of kind, and true to their names. And in this 

 connection I remark that my observation has led me to the conclusion 

 that wheats do not hybridize or cross-breed by any natural process. 

 This is a daring proposition, and one which conflicts with much written 

 authority. The suggestion is made for the purpose of eliciting a more 

 minute examination of the subject than has hitherto been given to it. 



That the unscientific reader may the more readily comprehend the 

 principles of hybridizing and cross-breeding, as they are effected through 

 the generative organs of the vegetable kingdom, I quote from an arti- 

 cle by Horace I'iper, in the report of the Department of Agriculture 

 for 1867, page 296, wherein the first principles of reproduction are so 

 clearly and intelligently stated. The author says : 



If we examine attentively a perfect flower, we sTiall find that it consists esssutillly 

 of two sets of organs, one called the pistils, and the other the stamens. The pistils 

 are located in the center of the flower, and the stamens aronnd thsm. The summit of 

 t!ie pistil is called the stigma, and ou the top of each stamen is situated an anther, a 

 small sack which contains the pollen or fine dust-like substance that fertilizes the 

 ovules or young seeds of the plant. These organs are supposed to perform offices anal- 

 ogous to tiiose of the animal kingdom — the stamens representing the male, and the 

 pistils the female organs. When the anthers, which contain the pollen, arrive at a 

 certain degree of matuiity, they suddenly open and emit a multitude of minute grains 

 of pollen, which penetrate through the whole extent of the vascular tissue of the 

 pistil, and ultimately reach the ovules, thus fertilizing them and making them capable, 

 when mature, of reproducing plants of their own kinds. 



The author then proceeds interestingly, and in language intelligible 

 to the plainest comprehension, to discuss how admirably nature has 

 provided the modus operandi hj which the male and female i)ortions of 

 the plant are brought into contact with each other, and produce the 

 fertilization which results in fruit ; but while he treats of perfect flow- 

 ers, where the stamens and pistils are in the same flower, as in the 

 apple ; where they are in different flowers, as in the oak ; and where 

 they are in different flowers and different plants, as in tlie hemp — in 

 all of which the x>ollen is conveyed by artificial aids, such as the wind, 

 birds, bees, or insects — he does not refer to those cases in which nature 

 has so constructed the flower that access of pollen from other flowers 

 is entirely excluded, and hence natural hybridization is practically im- 

 possible. 



Dr. George Vasey, the botanist of this Department, in commenting 

 ujion my views of this subject, says : 



In those leguminous plants with papilionaceous flowers, the anthers are kept in 

 contact with or in proximity to the stigma by the keel petals, which closely embrace 

 them until fertilization is eft'ected. This is designated " close fertilization, in contra- 

 distinction from those cases where the organs are freely exposed to the air and liable 

 to intermixture. In some plants of the fumitory family, the anthers and stigma are 



