APRIL. 185 



Again, the results are richly worth the pains. And our 

 enterprise and thrift are never slow in investments of toil 

 when the recompense is likely to be sure and speedy. But, 

 trouble or no trouble, thus alone, or in some similar manner, 

 can we keep the races of vegetable life from running out ; or 

 from losing the very properties which, at present, may disin- 

 cline the careless to diligence. 



The trouble, however, in such matters is always likely to be 

 over-estimated. It is necessarily limited to the brief bloom- 

 ing season, will not require an hour's time a day during that 

 period, and may be readily borne by an intelligent child of 

 twelve years ! 



Now suppose, for instance, a person to adopt the principle 

 that his seed-drawer is to be replenished every year by posi- 

 tive care. Then his earliest radish, lettuce, peas, beans and 

 corn will be saved accordingly. If, among these, he may 

 happen to have one of more value than another, he can use 

 especial care to secure it from hybridizing. A single tomato,, 

 chosen for its good qualities, among which will be reckoned 

 earliness, of course, will plant his own and his neighbor's 

 gardens. A single cucumber, the first good one, artificially 

 fertilized as already directed, will furnish all the seed he will 

 want of that kind. A single squash, or, at most, two squashes 

 of each variety, may also in like manner be secured for seed ; 

 and the same may be done for each kind of melon. After 

 these specimens, as it were, of his crop have been looked 

 ^after, he will have no occasion to do more than wait for their 

 maturity ; and the rest of his crop may be hybridized as much 

 as the bees may choose, for he will have no occasion to take 

 notice of anything but the pulp, or shell, which, as every one 

 knows, only serves as the matrix of the seed. 



If he have a disposition to do more in this direction, a little 

 additional careful manipulation may furnish him with the 

 means of trying some interesting experiments in fruit-grow- 

 ing. He can envelop a cluster of blossoms on his favorite 

 apple, pear, or peach tree, and, after giving the fruits thus 

 carefully preserved from possible hybridization a full share of 

 the tree's vigor, he may sow the genuine seeds thus produced 



VOL. XXII. NO. IV. 24 



