He who produces a new plant, or vegetable, is a 

 benefactor to mankind. 



Luther Burbank, your achievements are a monu- 

 ment that will live long after you are gone. . . . 



CROSSING 



Crossing of different varieties of plants may 

 be done by design or accident. Accidental 

 crossing is done by bees and insects carrying 

 the pollen, attached to their legs, bodies, or 

 antennae, from one flower to another. 



By design of man, by placing the pollen in 

 certain female flowers with a fine brush and 

 securing against further accidental polleniza- 

 tion, by covering the flower with a paper bag, 

 tied at the mouth around the base of the blos- 

 som. Also by planting different varieties of the 

 same kind close together. 



A single cross of two varieties, say of squash, 

 may produce a new variety much stronger and 

 more productive than either parent, but the 

 second planting of the seed, from the new vari- 

 ety, will often prove a failure. It may be only 

 one in a thousand that proves and holds good. 

 The writer once had a new variety of squash, 

 a cross between the Summer and Hubbard. It 

 produced twenty-seven good size squash, aver- 

 aging seven pounds each, or 189 pounds to one 

 vine, but the plants from this seed were only 

 ordinary. 



[78] 



