154 Success with Small Fruits. 



are occasionally procured in this way. Indeed, as we have seen, they 

 sometimes come up themselves, and assert their merit wholly unaided. 

 By such methods, however, the propagator has not one chance in 

 thousands, as much experience shows. 



We are, therefore, led to isolate our plants, and to seek intelligently 

 and definitely to unite the good qualities of two distinct varieties. If 

 they have no pistillate plants abroad, they must remove all the stamens 

 from some perfect flower before they are sufficiently developed to shed 

 their pollen, and then fertilize the pistils with the stamens of the other 

 variety whose qualities they wish to enter into the combination. There 

 is no need of our doing this, for it involves much trouble and care at best, 

 and then we are always haunted by the fear that the stamens were not 

 removed in time, or so completely as to prevent self-fertilization. With 

 such pistillate varieties as the Golden Defiance, Champion, Springdale, 

 and Crescent, we have as robust motherhood as we require. 



In order to present to the reader the most approved systems of 

 hybridization, I will give the methods of two gentlemen who are among 

 the best known in relation to this subject. 



The late Mr. Seth Boyden won world-wide celebrity by his success, 

 and the berry named after him will perpetuate his memory for many 

 years to come. When grown under the proper conditions, it presents a 

 type of excellence still unsurpassed. 



Mr. Boyden's neighbor, Mr. Ogden Brown, of Hilton, N. J., writes to 

 me as follows : 



" My method of raising seedlings is the one practiced by Mr. Boyden. In 

 August I set the plants from which I wish to secure new combinations in a plot of 

 ground the size of my glass frame, and in early spring set the frame over them, so 

 that the plants may blossom before any others. Thus, no mixture from the pollen 

 of outside plants can take place, for none are in bloom save those in the frame. 

 The plants within the frame are two or three pistillate plants, all of one good 

 variety, like the Champion ; and three or four superior, perfect-flowering kinds, any 

 one of which, I think, will make a good combination with the pistillate variety. 

 The seeds from the pistillate only are used, and when the fruit is ripened, these seeds 

 are slightly dried and placed between two pieces of ice for about two weeks. I 

 then put them in pure sand, wrapped up in a wet rag, and keep them sufficiently 

 near the fire to preserve constant warmth until the germs are ready to burst forth. 

 I then sow the seeds in a bed of finely riddled rich earth, and cover with boards 

 about six inches from the soil. This is to prevent the sun from drying the ground. 

 Plants thus raised will be sufficiently large to set in the fruiting-bed in September. 

 In the fifteen years that I was acquainted with Mr. Boyden, I never knew him to 

 fail in raising fruit from these plants the following summer. I do not know that 

 Mr. Boyden's method has been improved upon." 



