42 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



times happens, too, that the hybrid individual which we wish 

 to perpetuate may be infertile with itself, as I have often 

 found in the ease of squashes. It is often advised that we 

 cross the hybrid individual which we wish to fix with another 

 like individual, or with one of its parents. These results are 

 often successful, but oftener they are not. In the first 

 place, it often happens that the hybrid individuals may be so 

 diverse that no two of them are alike ; this has been my 

 experience in many crosses. And, again, crossing with a 

 parent may draw the hybrid back again to the parental form. 

 So long ago as last century Kcelreuter proved this fact upon 

 nicotiana and dianthus. A hybrid between JWkotiana rus- 

 tica and JV. pamculata was crossed with JST. paniadata until 

 it was indistinguishable from it ; and it was then crossed 

 with JV. rusiica until it became indistinguishable from that 

 parent. Yet there is no other way of fixing a hybrid to be 

 propagated by seeds than by in-breeding, so far as I know. 

 Fortunately, it occasionally happens that a hybrid is stable, 

 and therefore needs no fixing. 



In this connection I may cite some of my own experience 

 in crossing egg-plants and squashes ; for, although the prod- 

 ucts were not true hybrids in the strict interpretation of 

 the word, many of them were hybrids to all intents and pur- 

 poses, because made between very unlike varieties, and they 

 will serve to illustrate the difficulties of which I speak. 

 Offspring of egg-plant crosses were grown in 1890, and upon 

 some of the most promising plants some flowers were sell- 

 pollinated. But these self-pollinated seeds gave just as 

 variable offspring in 1891 as those selected almost at 

 random from the patch ; and, what was worse, none of 

 them reproduced the parent, or " came true to seed, " and 

 all further motive for in-breeding was gone. My labor, 

 therefore, amounted to nothing more than my own edifica- 

 tion. My experience in crossing pumpkins and squashes 

 has now extended through five years ; and, although I have 

 obtained about one thousand types not named or described, 

 I have not yet succeeded in fixing one. The difficulty here 

 is an aggravated one, however. The species are so exceed- 

 ingly variable that all the hybrid individuals may be unlike, 

 so that there can be no crossing between identical stocks ; 



