NEW CREATIONS IN PLANT LIFE 



This method has been followed by some in the 

 belief that they were thereby preventing in- 

 sects from coming in and destroying the 

 poUenating, but he holds that, save in some 

 particular cases, the act is not only absurd 

 but absolutely harmful and more than likely 

 so to injure the flower by keeping light and 

 air away from it as to frustrate the very end 

 aimed at. If the poUenating has been thorough, 

 Nature may safely be left to do the rest. 



Great care also should be exercised in sav- 

 ing the seeds of the plants under test. He 

 recommends air-tight glass jars for the pur- 

 pose. The jars should be kept in some secure 

 place — it is beyond the power of any mind to 

 say how precious these seeds may prove to be. 



From the plants that grow from the new 

 seeds one only should be chosen, the very best 

 of all, the one which is the thriftiest, the best 

 bearing, the nearest to the ideal. The seeds 

 from this one plant should be in turn planted, 

 and then from a very few of the very best 

 plants enough plants saved out to insure a 

 somewhat larger crop for the next generation. 

 Then from this larger generation only the 

 very best one should be saved. Mr. Burbank 



236 



