LECTUKE BY HON. MARSHALL P. WILDEE. 181 



when the pollen floats in the air, than he could prevent a field of 

 corn or a bed of melons of different sorts from mixing by the same 

 process. We therefore believe that to such impregnations he was 

 indebted for much of his wonderful success. But whatever objec- 

 tions may be raised asfaiust his favorite theory, the fact is undeni- 

 able, and reflects honor on his enterprise and life-long persever- 

 ance, that he and his disciples have given moi'e fine varieties of 

 pears to the world than all preceding cultivators. 



MR. KNIGHT'S THEORY. 



His system of obatining new and improved varieties was by 

 cross fertilization, or artificial impregnation. He was the great 

 modern practitioner of the art of hybridization, practising upon a 

 principle far more, scientific, reliable and progressive than that of 

 Dr. Van Mons. To him we are indebted for many valuable 

 lessons respecting the combination of certain characteristics in 

 various vegetable productions. Mr. Knight assumed that the off*- 

 spring of hybridized fruits and flowers, would in a great degree 

 inherit the characteristics of their parents, and that this system of 

 improvement in the production of fine varieties in the vegetable and 

 jioral kingdom had the merit of depending on a truly philosophi- 

 cal principle, as reliable as the corresponding principle in the 

 crossing of the breeds of domestic animals. As it regards degen- 

 eracy, so much feared by Dr. Van Mons, by the process of 

 hybridization, Mr. Knight's experiments disproved any such ten- 

 dency, as among his fruits raised by this process may be found 

 the most hardy varieties in England or in this country. By the 

 art of hybridization, improvements are now constantly taking- 

 place in all the departments of vegetable culture, and I am of the 

 opinion that the best and most expeditious method of producino- 

 new and excellent varieties, is to hybridize our most valuable 

 fruits, vegetables, and flowers, according to this system of Mr. 

 Knight. The result of this art as applied to the improvement of 

 the turnip, a crop valued in England at nearly two hundred 

 millions of dollars annually, has elevated it to a rank second to 

 no other in science ; and well did Mr. Webster remark, in his 

 famous " turnip speech," at the inauguration of the Norfolk Agri- 

 cultural Society, "England could not pay the interest 0:1 her 

 national debt, were it not for her turnip crop." A like experi- 

 ence, only in a less degree, is applicable to improvement by this 



