No. 4.] CROSSING OF PLANTS. 33 



the fact that our seasons are too short for egg-plants, and 

 only the earliest flowers, in the large varieties, perfect their 

 fruit, and the plant blooms continuously through the season. 

 In order to determine how much a plant will bear, it must 

 be grown until it ceases to bloom. When frost came, I 

 could see little difference in productiveness between these 

 crossed plants and commercial plants. A dozen fruits were 

 selected .from various parts of this patch, and in 1891 about 

 twenty-five hundred plants were grown from them. Again 

 the plants were remarkably robust and healthy, with fine 

 foliage, and they grew erect and tall, — an indication of vigor. 

 They were also very productive ; but, as the cross had been 

 made between unlike varieties, and they were therefore un- 

 like either parent, I could not make an accurate comparison. 

 But they compared well with commercial egg-plants, and I 

 am satisfied that they would have shown themselves to be 

 more productive than common stock could they have grown 

 a month or six weeks longer. Professor Munson, of the 

 Maine Agricultural College, grew some of this crossed stock 

 this year (1891), and he writes me that it is better than any 

 commercial stock in his gardens. 



In extended experiments in the crossing of pumpkins, 

 squashes and gourds, carried on during several years, increase 

 in productiveness due to crossing has been marked in many 

 instances. Marked increase in productiveness has been 

 obtained from tomato crosses, even when no other results of 

 crossing could be seen. 



Bearing in mind these good influences of crossing, let us 

 recall another series of facts following the simple change of 

 seed. Almost every farmer and gardener at the present day 

 feels that an occasional change of seed results in better crops, 

 and there are definite records to show that such is often 

 the case. In fact, I am convinced that much of the rapid 

 improvement in fruits and vegetables in recent years is due 

 to the practice of buying plants and seeds so largely of 

 dealers, by means of which the stock is often changed. Even 

 a slight change, as between farms or neighboring villages, 

 sometimes produces marked results, such as more vigorous 

 plants and often more fruitful ones. We must not suppose, 

 however, that because a small change gives a good result a 



