522 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



with profit an article on the subject, taken from the " Nortli Britit>h Agricul- 

 turist," republished in "The Country Gentleman," volume XVIII, page 219, 

 (1861 ;) also ilr. Ilallett's description of his mode of procedure, an extract 

 from his published results, may be found in " The Annual of Scientific Dis- 

 covery," for 1864, edited by D. A. Wells, M. D., pages 307, 308. Experi- 

 menters in hybridization or cross-fertilization may find some light thrown on 

 the process followed by Mr. Maund in the production of liis hybrid wheats, 

 exhibited at the Industrial Exhibition in London in 1851, by consulting the 

 Patent Office Report, agricultural division, for 1855, pages 181, 186; also 

 •'The Wheat Plant," by John H. Klippart, pages 81-85, a work abounding 

 in valuable information, interesting to every farmer, and especially interesting 

 to the wheat-growers of the great State of Ohio, from whom its statistics were 

 mainly derived. 



In an industrial point of view the production of a new prolific variety of 

 any of the cereal grains — wheat, oats, rye, or maize — is of immense national 

 importance. A new variety which will yield a few bushels more per acre over 

 the ordinary kinds would greatly increase the aggregate yield of our soils.* 

 In this direction an extensive and inviting field is open to experimenters. The 

 same may be said of many other products of the soil, which, by judicious 

 selection or careful hybridization might be greatly improved. The success 

 which has attended the efforts of many amateur cultivators in their attempts to 

 produce new varieties of fruits should encourage renewed efforts. Dr. J. P. 

 Kirtland, of Cleveland, Ohio, has produced no less than twenty-eight varieties 

 of excellent cherries, which were esteemed by his pomological friends as 

 surpassing most of the old and best varieties. Strange as it may seem, and 

 unwilling as we may be to believe, that one experimenter could in a short time 

 orio-inate so many superior varieties of cherries, it is nevertheless true tliat such 

 have been produced, and, also, that time but confirms the good opinion early 

 formed of them, and the belief that they will take precedence over all other 

 kinds yet introduced. The experiments in hybridization instituted by Edward 

 Rogers, of Salem, Massachusetts, which, it is believed, have resulted in the 

 production of several excellent varieties of grapes, will incite others to enter 

 this line of experiment with hopes of similar results. 



There is much room for improvement in our fruits by the selection of seed 

 of good varieties for the production of hardier kinds, or better adapted to their 

 place of origin. Hon. Marshal P. Wilder remarks : 



"The immense loss sustained by American cultivators who have attempted to introduce 

 varieties of fruits not adapted to the soil and climate, suggest the importance of raising from 

 seed native sorts which, in most instances, possess some peculiar advantage. It is novv gen 

 erally conceded that the plants indigenous to a country will flourish at home better tlian tuose 

 that have had their origin in foreign localities." — Proceedings of American Pomological 

 Society, 1854, p. 12. 



The United States possesses a very varied flora, which has not been fully 

 illustrated. There are many sections whose herbs, shrubs, and trees are not 

 fully known. As every educated farmer, it is presumed, has made some 

 acquaintance with botany, and unless he has, he can make but minor claims to 

 education, as this science is of the first importance in his profession, he can 

 •readily observe and record the names of all the forest trees at least ; and if he 

 can catalogue the common minor plants, or all that are met with in his town- 

 ship or wider district, his contribution Avould become so much the more valuable, 

 as more full and minute. Such catalogues, returned from every section of the 



* Dr. Vcelcker, in a recent lecture before the Royal Institution, London, stated that in the 

 county of Norfolk the average produce of wheat was, in 17715, iifteen bushels per acre; in 

 179G, twenty-eight bushels per acre ; in 1862, thirty two to thirty-six bushels per acre, the 

 increase being due to drainage, tillage, and to the growth of improved varieties. — xVnnual of 

 Scieniilic Dis'covery, 18o4, p. 202. 



