262 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



HYBRIDIZATION. 



Much stress is laid on the importance of hybridization, as an order in the 

 development of species and the parent of new varieties. While we are willing 

 to credit any agency that gives us an improved vegetable form, no matter 

 what it may be, it is possible to give to this more than is justly its due. 



When hybridization resulted in a mule, incapable of reproduction, we 

 could only regard it the parent of monstrosities, which would render all such 

 results, from the seedman's standpoint, utterly useless, as any seedless plant 

 would be to those whose business it is to sell seeds, but to-day we accept it as 

 an important agency in the development of vegetable forms. 



But how are types developed through this agency? may be asked. We 

 reply by simply uniting the good qualities of two or more vareities into one. 

 As, for instance, a tree, shrub or plant may be vigorous in growth, and strong 

 in reproductive energy, but its fruits may be low in those qualities that give it 

 a commercial value. 



An allied species or variety may have but little strength physically, but 

 produce fruits, in limited quantity, that reach the highest degree of perfection. 

 A union of the good qualities of the two is a most valuable acquisition. This 

 is our work our duty as agents in plant breeding or plant education. 



When these imprisoned energies are set free by cross-fertilization, they 

 are liable to impart to their progeny some very strange combinations, many 

 erratic freaks, present themselves. These strange variations are apt to show 

 themselves for several generations. This makes the work of selection a neces- 

 sary one, which must be long continued, before a desired type becomes 

 permanent. 



That we have secured a variety that will prove constant and reproduce 

 these pronounced characteristics we so highly prize, when first they present 

 themselves, is by no means certain. The most desirable varieties have been 

 the result of a long series of careful selection freom stocks which showed a 

 tendency to improve under favorable circumstances. 



Improvement along any line of reproduction is slow, and uncertain. Many 

 of the varieties produced through the agency of cross-fertilization, while of 

 great value in the locality where they originated, are, or may be without value 

 elsewhere, as they do not always reproduce themselves when grown under 

 changed conditions of soil and climate. They may come true to the type the 

 first year, but will not reproduce it, from the fact of its not being congenial to 

 its changed conditions. This is true with all leading varieties, and, while the 

 seed of a given type will come true under nearly all conditions where the plant 

 can be grown at all, yet it may not do to grow it for seed purposes. The seed 

 growers all over the world fully understand these conditions, and get their 

 stocks from localities where development, rather than deterioration, is the 

 natural tendency. 



REPRODUCTION. 



It matters not when, how or where a given variety was produced ; the 

 question for the plant breeder is, where can it be reproduced to the best possi- 

 ble advantage? In other words, where can he procure seeds that will give the 

 greatest,.satisf action in the locality he has to supply? 



