THE GENESEE FARMER. 



sva 



thus foiled in its endeavors, to propagate itself in 

 this manner, will ultimately direct its energies to 

 the production of blossoms and seeds. 



"I consider it advisable to fertilize the flov^ers 

 of one variety with the pollen of another. Some 

 facts seem to indicate that a result of tliis practice 

 is a more vigorous seedling than could have been 

 obtained from either of the parent plants without 

 the crossing. Some who may be desirous of try- 

 ing this method, may not know much about the 

 sexual organs of plants. To such the following in- 

 structions may be of use : 



"Take a full-blown potato flower; in the inside 

 of it you will find six small upright bodies, five of 

 •which are alike; these are the stamens, or male 

 organs, which produce the yellow fertilizing dust 

 cailed 'pf'l'^^"- ^" ^''® center of the flower, and 

 surrounded by the fijfe stamens, is the pistil or 

 female organ; this may be known by its light 

 green color, and by its diifering in shape from the 

 stamens, or, by carefully tearing away the corolla 

 or flower leaf, and the stamens, the pistil may be 

 still further distinguished by its being seated upon 

 the miniature berry containing the embryo seeds. 



"To cross fertilize it is of course requisite tliat 

 the parent plants should be in blossom at the same 

 time. A flower intended for the female parent, 

 should aot be suffered to perfect its pollen ; to pre- 

 yeut this, it must be carefully opened just before it 

 naturally expands, and the five stamens must be 

 removed by a pair of small-pointed scissors, taking 

 great care to leave the pistil uninjured. When the 

 flower has expanded, gather perfect flowers of the 

 variety intended for the male parent, and dust the 

 pollen onto the pistil of the flower you have pre- 

 viously deprived of stamens, or shake the pollen 

 onto a sheet of writing-paper, and so scatter it 

 onto the summit of the pistil. The best time for 

 this operation is in the middle of a dry sunny day, 

 and to avoid failure it should be repeated every 

 favorable day till the flowers begin to fade; the 

 petals of flowers having been observed to shrivel 

 and fall, soon after the seeds were fertilized, and to 

 retain their petals for days longer if this had not 

 taken place. 



'' When about four berries are set on each plantf 

 nip off the remainder of the flowers. At this stage 

 of growth the plant will haveoompleted its feeding 

 organs, and a greater quantity of sap will probably 

 be elaborated than is required for the support of 

 the seeds; consequently, one or two tubers may 

 now be suffered to grow, or the plant will form 

 thera in the axils of the leaves higher up the stem. 

 If the parasite should appear on the leaves of the 

 seed-bearing plants, as soon as the spots are per- 

 ceived dust them with the flowers of sulphur on 

 the under side of the leaves when moist. This 

 may possible destroy the fungus, or otherwise stop 

 its progress. 



" A Silesian agriculturist, who has succeeded in 

 regenerating the potato by means of seedlings, 

 takes the seeds from the berries in autumn. Zan- 

 DEK, who has been equally successful, objects to 

 this practice, and advises that the seeds should be 

 preserved in the berries in a dry place secure from 

 frost, till the beginning of February. It may he 

 well to ascertaitn for the sake of future guidance, 

 whether these different modes of preserving the 

 seed exercise any influence on ihe vigor of the 



young jilants. Zander's plan may prove the best, 

 especially if the seeds were not thoroughly ripe 

 when the berries were gathered. When the seeds 

 are to be extracted, crush the berries with the 

 hand, and put them in a tub or other vessel ; place 

 them in a cellar, or some other shady place, for six 

 or eight days; as soon as a slight fermentatiou'ts.^ 

 is observed, wash the pulp in luke-warm water; i^; 

 pick out the seeds, and wash them gently in one •" 

 or two other waters, till they are perfectly clean 

 and free from pulp; then scatter them on a sheet 

 of paper to dry ; when dry, place them loosely in 

 small canvas-bags ; suspend the bags in a bed- 

 room, or some equally temperately-dry place, until 

 the time of sowing. 



"About the last week of April prepare a pieoe 

 of free soil for the seed-bed ; the ])revious year's 

 onion-bed, or some plot equally well manured, and 

 which has grown a crop equally ditferent from the 

 potato the preceding year, should be preferred. 

 Sow the seed thinly and shallow, in rows six 

 inches apart; when the plants are four or five 

 inches high, prepare the ground into which they 

 are to be transplanted ; apply a moderate dressing 

 of guano, or charred vegetable matter, broadcast. 

 If the ground is hoed into ridges, that is, if it is 

 formed into a wavelike surface (as is sometimes 

 done for cabbages,) and the seedlings are planted in 

 the hollows, they would, to a certain extent, be 

 protected from the wind; they might be watered 

 with greater facility if the weather should prove 

 dry, soon after planting, and roots would ultimately 

 be deeper in the soil than if planted on the level 

 surface; these advantages would more than com- 

 pensate for the extra trouble. Remove the plants 

 carefully, disturb the roots as little as possible, and 

 select a dull moist day for transplanting. Let the 

 rows be not less than twenty inches apart, and the 

 plants eight inches from each other in the rows. 

 To save after trouble, reject all plants which exhibit 

 marked symptoms of constitutional weakness, and 

 all which have soft prostrate stems. Carefully ob- 

 serve the remaining plants throughout their growth, 

 in order that the healthiest and the best may be se- 

 lected to be the parents of the seed-bearing plants 

 in the following year. Those which exhibit the 

 greatest hardiness, which suffer the least from ad- 

 verse weather, &c., must be marked by labels ; and 

 if, in addition to this indispensable property, any 

 possess other good points, such as dwarf, stout, 

 rigid stems, good-shaped tubers, and ripen some- 

 what early, a preference should be given to them. 

 The Silesian agriculturist says : ' A condition, sirie 

 qtM non, is, that the tubers of the seedling plants 

 be carefully preserved during the winter from be- 

 coming heated and sprouted before they are 

 planted.'' It may be well, therefore, to leave the 

 tubers undug until the time of planting, and as 

 they will probably be formed nearer the surface of 

 the soil than the tubers of plants grown from sets, 

 a covering of two or three inches thick of brack- 

 ens, heath, furze, straw, or some such material, 

 may be needed to preserve them from frost. 



" When the time for planting has again arrived, 

 and the ground been prepared^ and the stakes fixed 

 where the seed-bearing plants are to grow, dig up 

 the tubers of one of the marked seedlings, select 

 two or three of the largest and plant them at once ; 

 then raise the tubers of another of the chosen 



