LUTHER BURBANK 



If, on the other hand, you keep the seeds over 

 winter, they should be kept slightly moist, as they 

 will not germinate readily, if at all, if they are 

 allowed to become thoroughly dry. They may be 

 kept in sand that is slightly moistened (not wet) 

 in a cool place. The seedlings grown from seeds 

 planted in the early spring will be ready to supply 

 material for summer budding, or they may be left 

 on their own roots throughout the season, to be 

 grafted early in the succeeding spring. 



Meantime you may extend the scope of your 

 operations, and prepare for a wider range of ex- 

 periment next season, by hybridizing the flowers 

 of any orchard trees that chance to grow in your 

 dooryard. You may secure a few apple blossoms 

 from your neighbor's orchard, and by pollenating 

 the blossoms on your own tree prepare the way 

 for interesting developments. Also, if trees are 

 at hand, try pollenizing apple and pear, or pear 

 and quince, or wild crab and cultivated apple, or 

 wild plum and domestic plum, or wild cherry and 

 cultivated cherry. 



There will be no obvious immediate effect on the 

 flower that you thus cross-fertilize. The fruit that 

 develops will be the same in appearance that it 

 would have been if fertilization had been effected 

 in the ordinary way with pollen of its own kind. 

 But the seeds are profoundly affected in their 

 germinal matter. You must extract the seeds 

 when the fruit is ripe, and either plant them at 

 once or keep them over winter as above suggested. 

 The seedlings that grow from them will be hybrids 



[78] 



