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‘316 BEPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. . 
quent more perfect pollination afforded by some varieties, had quite as muchtodo _ 
with the difference in the result as any true effect of the cross-fertilization. Re- 
liable experiments are badly needed on this subject, but I am sorry to say I have 
none to report. Practical fruit-growers are always too much rushed by work that 
can not be put off to conduct experiments with the care necessary to give them sci- 
entitic value. 
D. M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, Mich.: 
Concerning the effect of cross-fertilization, we would say that whatever observa- 
tions we have made have not been recorded and the attending circumstances Care- 
fully enough noted.to make them of any value from a scientific point of view, but _ 
they have been extensive enough to convince us that very often, but not uniformly 
even in the same species and variety, the pollen des affect the developing fruit. 
There is not a season but what we have experiences like this: A certain stock of 
sweet corn is divided between two or more growers. All but oneof the fields grown 
from that are perfectly clear of any trace of field corn; but one corners on a field of © 
field corn, and in that field, and very markedly on the side nearest the field corn, we 
find much mixture of yellow and crossed grains. Hf this was a result of previous 
impregnation why should it show itself in this field and in no other? 
Similar resulis have been noticed in cucumbers, squashes, and water-melons; that 
is, a tield near some other variety will have a greater or less number of melons 
' which are clearly crossed, or ‘‘ off type,” but other fields planted from the same 
_ bag and not near other fields would seem perfectly pure. 
~ Again, in 1883 and 1884 we made a large number of crosses between different 
varieties of peas, carefully emasculating the blossoms used, and had quiteanum- ~ 
ber of pods of smooth and yellow-fruited varieties which had been fertilized by 
wrinkled sorts which would have the same pod peas of the normal! type and color | _ 
and others which were distinctly and very clearly wrinkled and of a green color. 
Again, in the pickings from our crop of peas and beans which have been reported as 
grown too near other sorts we see a marked trace of the neighboring sort. We know 
it is claimed by some that peas and beans are self-fertilizing, but we have learned 
that they are not always so, to our cost. We are sorry we can not give you more 
' explicit data, but have done what we could. 3 
K. H. Hart, Federal Point, Fla. : 
Among oranges the influence of cross-fertilization is constantly apparent. I have 
a number of trees of an imported variety of the orange called ‘‘ Long,” the fruit of 
which has always been extremely elongated. The row next to these was budded 
several years ago with a flat orange which bloomed and set fruit for the first time 
this season.. The pollen of these flat oranges has modified the long oranges next to 
them to such a degree that the latter are nearly all round, and some of them flat- 
tened, a feature never before observed. 
The Navel orange is one of the most potent to leave its marks on other kinds in - 
its vicinity. ; 
Peter Henderson, New York City, N. Y.: 
We have cultivated on an acre of ground during the last twenty years an aver- 
age of thirty varieties of strawberries, running side by side. Among these varieties 
some were pistillate, some staminate, and some having perfect flowers, and yet 
with the most careful observation I have never observed the slightest variation in 
the fruit from such a mixture of varieties. You say that it is generally believed in 
Cucurbitacece that a cross affects the fruit the first year, I have incontrovertible 
evidence that it does not. In our trial grounds, where probably fifty different 
species and varieties of Cucurbitacec are planted, so that we can examine the types, . 
the closest observation has failed to show us a single instance where the fruit has 
been changed in the slightest degree. That the seeds of kinds so planted become 
mixed we well know, but the fruit proper is certainly never changed. 
R. F. Kolb, Auburn, Ala. : 
I have been growing melons for fifteen years, and am one of the largest growers 
in the South, my average crop being over 200 acres. There is never any evidence 
of mixing in the appearance of the fruit the first season, provided the seeds planted 
are perfectly pure and true to variety. You might plant two or more varieties of 
melons near each other, and if the seeds of each are perfectly pure when planted 
you would observe no mixing the first year in the appearance of the fruit, but if 
the seeds of either variety so plantedavere again planted the next season you would 
find among the crop various hybrids. in other words, the mixing goes into the seed 
the first year, but does not show itself in the appearance of the fruit. 
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