378 



NEW ENGLAND FAJlMER. 



Aug. 



For the Neic England Farmer. 



DO TURNIPS MIX1 



This inquiry might be extended to onions, 

 beets, carrots, parsnips, and all other cultivated 

 roots and tubers ; also to the roots of apple, ])lum, 

 cherry, pear and peach trees, no less than potatoes. 

 Mixing or hybridizing is done by the fecundating 

 dust contained in the anthers of flowers, which falls 

 on the stigma, thus impregnating the seed germ 

 or ovule, and causing it to develop to maturity for 

 the propagation of its kind. 



Flowers are said to be complete, sexually, when 

 they contain both stamens and pistils. There are 

 flowers that have stamens but no pistils. Such are 

 called staminate or slirile flowers ; and there are 

 tnose that have pistils and no stamens. These two 

 kinds of flowers may grow on distinct plants or 

 trees, as on the willow, po])lar, hemp; or on the 

 same tree, as the butternut, the chestnut, the wal- 

 nut, the oak, and Indian corn. In the former case 

 they are called dippcious, signil'}ing two house- 

 holds ; in the latter, monoeeious, indicating one 

 household. All who have observed the flowering 

 of the oak, chestnut, butternut, or walnut, recol- 

 lect that the staminate flowers are much more 

 showy than the pistilate, and removed from it. So 

 of Indian corn, the pistils being quite a distance be- 

 low the paniculate racemes, producing the pcJlen, 

 without which the farmer could raise no corn. Go 

 through the field and clip ofl' the panicles or tassels 

 before they blossom, and providing there is no other 

 field near enough to furnish pollen, there will 

 he neither mixmg nor corn. Plant a field, one 

 side of it with white corn and the other with yellow, 

 and when you harvest and husk, you will find white 

 and yellow corn growing on the same cob. Not so 

 of tubers, nor roots ; because the pollen falling on 

 the stigma of a flower does not effect the quality of 

 the root or tuber forming. The mixing takes place 

 in the flowers where the seeds are formed, as every 

 hybridizer knows full well. Hence the idea that 

 roots and tubers mix, is without the slightest foun- 

 dation. As corn can only be mixed by the pollen 

 falling on the stigma and thus fertilizing the ovule ; 

 so of the potato, the turnip, and other tubers and 

 roots. 



It is owing to the fact that the pistils of seedling 

 fruits are imjuegnatcd with the pollen from other 

 trees that apple seeds, pear seeds, cherry, plum 

 and peach pits do not produce the same variety, 

 uniformly, as the parent stock. This whole sub- 

 ject is one of great interest. It is by mixing pol- 

 len that h\l)rids and varieties are and may be mul- 

 liplied without any known limit. L. w. 



Remaeks. — The ideas of our correspondent we 

 .hink will convey a wrong impression, even if one 

 does not exist in his own mind. Turnips, beets, 

 carrots, &c., are biennial ; that is, the roots raised 

 from seed sown this year, must be set out next year, 

 in order to produce seed again. Now if seed known 

 to be pure are sown this season, the root harvested 

 vull evidently be of the same variety, and pure 

 iilso. But if two or more varieties of the roots of 

 these plants are set out side by side, next year, for 

 :he purpose of raising seed, it is evident, even from 

 our correspondent's argument, that, if they come 



into flower at the same time, the seed gathered 

 from any one variety cannot be relied upon to pro- 

 duce the same, but must partake of the nature of its 

 neighbors. The result must be the same as with 

 corn or any annual plant, only the time taken to 

 eflfect it is longer. Some dozen or more varieties 

 of turnips have been produced within a very few 

 years, and from this very method of hybridizing. 



WINEOW-BLIND FIXTURES. 



We have examined with considerable in-terest a 

 model showing the improvements in window blind 

 fixtures represented in the above engraving. The 

 improvement possesses many advantages over the 

 present method of adjusting blinds, and as the ex- 

 pense is only about ten cents more to each window, 

 we think the plan will be extensively adopted. The 

 cut represents one blind wide open, and the other 

 close shut. The blind rests upon slides which 

 move along an iron rod, five-sixteenths of an inch 

 in diameter. The braces which connect this 

 rod to the window-stool, prevent the blind from 

 sliding too far in either direction. At the top the 

 blind is connected with another rod, one-fourth 

 inch in diameter, by a slide which is also a spring, 

 sufficiently strong to hold the blind in place. — 

 Among the advantages which this method of fas- 

 tening blinds presents, are the following : there 

 are no springs to get out of order ; the weight of 

 the blind is distributed equally along the entire 

 bottom and there is no sagging ; the blind can be 

 open to any distance, from a crack an inch wide to 

 its entire extent, with no danger of slamming in 

 the wind ; being fastened together on the inside 

 when closed, by a hasp, they cannot be opened 

 from without ; no staples need be driven into the 

 window-stools, looking awkward, and frequently 

 being in the way. 



The whole arrangement, as shown in the model 

 before us, is very neat, though the cut gives an ill- 

 proportioned appearance of the parts. Mr. A. G. 

 Rachelder, 92 Iloward Street, Lowell, is the in- 

 ventor of this plan, and has applied for a pateiU. 



