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_ The following letters are given from among those received at the 
fon eae in response to inquiries upon this subject: 
FE. Baker, Bridgeton, N. J.; 
‘ -' In Maurice River and Fairfield Townships, Cumberland County, an occasional 
hill of pumpkins has been planted among water-melons, but not for the past three 
years. it increases the size-very much, and also makes the rind harder, so that they 
endure handling and transportation better. The universal opinion of those whe 
have practiced this method is that it had invariably a bad effect upon the quality, so 
. that they have abandoned the practice. 
There is ample evidence the first year of mixture, and seed from such stock is 
utterly worthless where good toothsome melons are desired. 
Prof. L. H. Bailey, jr., Agricultural College, Mich.: 
me Lhave performed many c osses this year between such plants as would give un- 
- mistakable evidence of the immediate effect of pollen should such effect occur. I 
-_ erossed Hyslop crab with Duchess of Oldenburg and got no effect in any way, not 
-_. even in season of maturity or texture. I crossed another crab with Sweet Romanite 
'_ and obtained no immediate effect. 
By the way, I made a singular incidental experiment on these varieties. Of five 
crabs I removed four of the pistils and crossed the remaining one. From these 
crosses I got two mature apples, but they had seeds in only one cell. 
b I crossed many Crookneck squashes with the White Scallop or Summer Turban. 
__. The squashes are nearly mature, but there is no immediate effect whatever, In 
order to test the matter more fully I hybridized two plants which have exceedingly 
_. dissimilar fruits. These are Datura stramonium (Jamestown weed) and D, inermis, 
The former has very prickly pods, the latter very smooth ones. I have made recip- 
rocal hybridizations, but there is no immediate effect of pollen, I have never yet 
seen any immediate effect of pollen. Jam very careful in making my crosses, and 
I know that I have made no mistake. I do all the work myself Iuse maniilla bags 
REPORT 0 
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on both pistillate and staminate flowers, and I leave them on the pistillate flowers — 
a week after the operation is performed. 
ii Prof. J. L. Budd, Agricultural College, Ames, Iowa: 
7 
_ . The most marked variation in the shape of fruit was in the crossing of the Roman 
: ‘Stem on the Pyrus coronaria. Some of the specimens were so like Roman Stem in 
%e shape and in the peculiar stem and basin as to be difficult to separate, except by 
_  golor of skin and texture and flavor of flesh. 
But we have had a number of essential changes where we have crossed remotely 
connected varieties and species. Roman Stem on the Russian Silken Leaf apple has 
given some peculiar changes of fruit. 
Next year I will report more carefully. I have never doubted the possibility of a 
change of fruits in this way since I crossed the Colfax strawberry twenty-five years 
ago. . 
William G. Comstock, Kast Hartford, Conn.: 3 
In all my experience, and I have been a practical seed-grower fifty years, I have 
never seen any mixture in the fruit the first year from cross-fertilization, but from 
seeds of the crossed specimens planted the next year fruits have been produced in 
which the mixture has been plainly shown. I never knew a melon to partake of 
the cucumber flavor or to show any spines. The smooth-stemmed squashes, like 
the Boston Marrow and Hubbard, do not mix with the rough angular-stemmed va- 
rieties like the Crookneck, nor with the field pumpkin. 
William Darlington, in his work on American Weeds and Useful 
Plants, p. 142, says: 
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yc When growing in the immediate vicinity of squashes the fruit of this species 
(Cucurbita pepo, Pumpkin) is liable to be converted into a hybrid of little or no 
value. Ihave had a crop of pumpkins totally spoiled by inadvertently planting 
squashes among them, the fruit becoming very hard and warty, unfit,for the table 
and unsafe to give to cattle. ‘ 
F. §. Earle, Cobden, I1., writes: 
.. The question of the immediate influence of cross-fertilization is an important one, 
i and Iam glad you are investigating it. I think there is no question that the fruit 
_ of pistillate varieties of strawberries varies when fertilized by different staminate 
_ _ varieties, but I have always'suspected that the more abundant pollen, and conse- 
‘ 
