ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION OF WHEAT. 



267 



by any chance it should not come to them through the opening of the flower. I 

 attempted to follow up this matter and will refer to it again at the close of 

 these notes. 



As to the actual results of the work in artificial pollination I cannot say as 

 much as I should like. The crosses made in 1884 were all destroyed by- the 

 severe winter of 1884-5, as was also nearly the whole experimental work with 

 wheat, including some two hundred so-called varieties. With several varieties, 

 a few stalks of which survived, the work was again taken up in '85 and the 

 progeny of some of these crosses harvested in '86 are shown on the cards here- 

 with exhibited. In all the crosses here shown, Velvet Chaff, which is truly a 

 characteristic variety, was used as the male parent. This variety proved to be 

 one of the most hardy with us and was the standard variety used in all the 

 general experimental work. The specimens here exhibited show what a re- 

 markable influence it had upon the three clean chaffed, beardless varieties with 

 which it was crossed. These latter were Russian May, Siberian and Big 

 Frame. 



Referring again to the matter of whether ovaries are strictly fertilized 

 with their own pollen in nature, I will say that a portion of the blossoms on a 

 large number of heads were deprived of the anthers and left to note develop- 

 ment of the kernel. In a great many of these kernels were formed and these 

 afterward planted brought plants true to the type of the variety. If it is asked 

 why were they not crosses, the answer would be that the heads of their own 

 variety being so plentiful about them and the others being some distance re-- 

 moved, there was no opportunity for crossing. 



Some of the heads produced in this experiment were eleven inches long 

 by actual measurement and were well rilled, but in the subsequent operations 

 of the Ohio Station, after I severed my connection with it, these crosses were 

 entirely lost. 



