No. 4.] CKOSSING OF PLANTS. 51 



Professor Bailey. Then there is this further considera- 

 tion which I intended to mention in this connection, — that 

 in-breeding among plants is a much more intense operation 

 than among animals, because in-breeding in all animals is 

 really a cross between two individuals, and you do not get 

 nearly so much of effect in the in-breeding of plants as you 

 do in animals. 



The Chairman. While you are thinking up questions, I 

 would like to suggest one myself. Some three or four years 

 ago a report came from the Michigan Horticultural Society 

 which interested a good many of our strawberry growers. 

 It was on the effect that staminate plants have upon the 

 crop of the present year when planted beside pistillate 

 plants. In other words, it is known that we are obliged to 

 plant at short distances staminate plants beside the pistillate 

 in growing the strawberry, and in recent years our greatest 

 improvement in that fruit has been in the pistillate varieties. 

 Now, it was said in this report of the Michigan Horticultural 

 Society that the effect of the staminate berry was very 

 apparent upon the berries of other varieties growing close 

 by. In other words, that in size, in color and in form it had 

 an effect upon the berries. If that is true, you see the 

 importance of the staminate berry that we use. And I see 

 by a recent report that that idea has been endorsed by Mr. 

 Hale of Connecticut, who is one of the largest strawberry 

 growers in New England. I believe Professor Bailey was 

 connected with the Michigan institution when this report 

 was made, and, thinking he may be familiar with the 

 experience of those experimenters and the correctness or 

 incorrectness of the report they sent out, I would like to ask 

 bis opinion on the subject. 



Professor Bailey. I am very sorry this question has 

 come up, because it is one of those corners into which one 

 is sometimes driven, out of which he cannot emerge very 

 gracefully. It is a mooted point at the present time. My 

 own opinion is an heretical one in regard to the matter. But 

 those experiments were not made at the Michigan college ; 

 they were made at the Ohio Experiment Station, and after- 

 wards modified by Professor Lazenby, who made them. 

 But, on the principle that error will travel faster than fact, 



