THE CANADIAN HORTICULTUKIST. 



might be planted much closer as an experiment — probably every tree 

 would have fine fruit, some extra, while the tree, owing to not being 

 transplanted, would be much healthier and longer lived, as its large 

 tap root running straight down (which is cut off in transplanting) would 

 give the natural support to the tree that it so much requires when 

 loaded with fruit; and at one year old they would be as large as those 

 got from the nurseries, and would not, like them, receive a check from 

 transplanting as the latter have. 



Seedling Gooseberries. — My next attempt in raising seedlings was 

 with gooseberries; I planted a short row of the best English gooseberries 

 close together, touching these on one side I planted a row of Houghton's 

 seedling, and on the other side a row of chance seedling, evidently a 

 cross between the English and the wild prickly fruited gooseberry, 

 that had sprung up among some seedlings from English gooseberries 

 raised a few years previous. In this case the pollen from the wild 

 variety which grew abundantly in a ravine near by had no doubt been 

 carried by the bees. The seeds from each \ariety w^ere saved and 

 •sowed separately, the result was that somc; ccedlings from the Houghton 

 were nearly as large as the European, while some of the latter res(;mbled 

 the Houghton, and were of all sizes and colors, while those from the 

 wild hybrid were of every color and size, smooth, hairy, nearly prickly, 

 with a good deal of the wild flavor, and strong, straight, upright shoots, 

 nearly six feet high, covered with strong spines like the original wild 

 species. Another cross which I intend making next season, between 

 these and the best English, will doubtless be a still greater improve- 

 ment ; but had there been no English to cross with you might have 

 gone on sowing the seeds of the wild long enough without getting any 

 variation from the original. 



Seedling Cherries. — One spring quite a number of seedling plums, 

 cherries, apples, and pears sprung up in my flower garden, near a 

 verandah, where the fruit had been eaten. Having abundance of fine 

 fruit growing in my garden we used none but the very best, and the 

 seedlings were from as choice fruit as could be selected. I transplanted 

 them in the end of a tulip bed, planting thick, in two rows a foot apart 

 and four feet long, intending to plant them out and prove them the 

 following year, but they were allowed to grow in a thick cluster till 

 one of them fruited — a cherry — which was so excellent that all the 

 rest were .taken up and planted elsewhere. From this cluster more 



