Amateur Tree Breeders? Why Not? 



a second glassine bag may be tied over 

 the original. The heavy paper bag is 

 then replaced and the bags are left 

 in position until the flowers are past 

 bloom. Sausage-casing bags may be 

 punctured for pollination, or the tip 

 of the bag may be opened carefully, 

 just enough to admit the dropper. 



The medicine droppers work best if 

 the ends are drawn out to a relatively 

 fine point in the heat of a gas flame. A 

 loose wad of absorbent cotton inserted 

 in the dropper, just below the rubber 

 bulb, will conserve pollen by keeping 

 it out of the bulb. Such droppers are 

 cheap enough to be used for one kind 

 of pollen and then discarded. 



Pollen can be collected directly from 

 the tree selected as the male parent, 

 but there is less danger of contamina- 

 tion if flowering branches are cut and 

 kept indoors, in water, until the pollen 

 is shed. Special care must be taken to 

 prevent any mixing of pollen from dif- 

 ferent trees. Pollen can be handled 

 most conveniently in small vials stop- 

 pered with plugs of absorbent cotton. 

 Most pollen will remain viable for at 

 least several days, if the cotton-stop- 

 pered vials are kept in a tight jar and 

 stored in a refrigerator. 



Accurate records are essential ; flow- 

 ers, pollen, seeds, and seedlings should 

 be labeled to provide a detailed record 

 of the parentage of all progenies pro- 

 duced by controlled breeding. The 

 amateur breeder should record such 

 information as location and description 

 of parent trees, dates of bagging, pol- 

 len collection, pollination, removal of 

 bags, collection of seed, storage of seed, 

 and date of planting. Such records are 

 necessary for planning future breeding 

 work, especially breeding directed 

 toward the improvement of particular 

 characters or qualities. 



159 



The tree breeder also should collect 

 seed, matured to natural pollination, 

 from both parents of his successful 

 crosses. The seedlings and trees grown 

 from such open-pollinated seed can be 

 used as a "yardstick" to determine how 

 much the control-bred seedlings differ 

 from their parental types. 



Seed can be planted in pots, in flats, 

 or in carefully prepared seedbeds; the 

 essential thing is to maintain the iden- 

 tity of each seed lot from the time the 

 seed is collected until the seedlings are 

 planted in a permanent location. The 

 final planting location of the seedling 

 progenies is best recorded on a map. 



The study of his progeny trees can 

 keep the amateur breeder occupied for 

 many years. From frequent observa- 

 tions during every month of the grow- 

 ing season, by literally living with his 

 trees, the amateur will soon recognize 

 differences between trees of even the 

 same parentage. Where "yardstick 

 trees" of the parent types are included 

 in the plantation, they will provide a 

 good measure for estimating improve- 

 ment in the progenies derived from 

 controlled breeding. 



ERNST J. SGHREINER has done re- 

 search in tree breeding since 1924, 

 when he left the New York State Col- 

 lege of Forestry at Syracuse University 

 shortly before graduation to work on 

 poplars. His first work with hybrid pop- 

 lars was as research forester with the 

 Oxford Paper Company from 1924 to 

 1935. After a year with the Tennessee 

 Valley Authority as associate tree-crop 

 specialist, he joined the staff of the 

 Northeastern Forest Experiment Sta- 

 tion as forest geneticist. He holds de- 

 grees from the New York State College 

 of Forestry at Syracuse (1926) and 

 from Columbia University. 



Many a tree is found in the wood 

 And every tree for its use is good: 

 Some for the strength of the gnarled 



root. 

 Some for the sweetness of flowering 



fruit; 



Some for a shelter against the storm. 

 And some to keep the hearthstone 



warm; 

 Some for the roof, and some for the 



beam . . . 



HENRY VAN DYKE 



