NATIONAL COUNCIL OF HORTICULTURE 29 



cent practice, beginning in fact almost with the closing years of the 

 last century, that it has made but limited impression on vegetable types. 

 The present standard varieties are with few exceptions the outcome of 

 selection alone. Hybridization, coupled with the all-necessary selec- 

 tion, is likely to have an increasing share in future vegetable breeding. 

 Following is a brief resume of the principal modern vegetables with 

 reference to the general manner of their production. 



Asparagus. The cultivated varieties of asparagus all appear to 

 have been developed by age-long selection from the common European 

 species, A. officinalis. A few modern kinds are claimed to be cross- 

 bred, but whether intentionally so, we are not informed. Asparagus, 

 being largely dioecious in blooming habit, is readily cross-fertilized 

 when two or more varieties are grown in near vicinity. A Massachus- 

 etts society has undertaken breeding experiments with asparagus both 

 on the lines of pure selection and well considered crossing, with the 

 hope of producing varieties more resistant to rust than those now 

 cultivated. 



Beets. Modern garden beets are admirable examples of critical 

 selection for untold generations of culture. Certain varieties leave 

 little to be desired in elegance of form, coloring or quality. The present 

 effort appears to be toward uniformity of type rather than refinements 

 of the above mentioned features. The use of beets for sugar produc- 

 tion has, however, led to wonderful development of forms suitable for 

 that important commercial purpose. The sugar content of the beet has 

 been more than doubled in less than forty years of concentrated breed- 

 ing work largely under government supervision. Selection of the best 

 sugar-producing individuals for successive generations has been the 

 all-powerful means, but cross-pollination is now beginning to play its 

 part. One of the important objects sought by the breeders of our 

 Department of Agriculture is the production of a reliable strain of 

 one-germ beet seeds in order to lessen the expense of thinning the 

 young plants. Everyone knows that ordinary beet "seeds" are merely 

 coherent multiple fruits, usually containing several true seeds, which 

 may germinate close together. The Department breeders employ both 

 selection and crossing in the furtherance of their work. 



Cabbage and related Brassicas are without doubt bred almost 

 wholly by selection. Profound indeed have been the changes wrought 

 in developing our hard-heading cabbages, our cauliflowers, Brussels 

 sprouts, kales and even Kohl-rabis from the loose-tufted wild cabbage 

 of Britain. Varieties cross with some freedom when planted near-by 

 and useful variations may have arisen in that manner, but the tendency 

 is carefully to segregate seed plantings so as to reduce natural crossing 

 to the minimum. The writer has made crosses between green-leaved 

 and highfy glaucous cabbage varieties with the production of offspring 

 having leaves of intermediate coloring, but retaining the heading char- 

 acteristics of both parents in different individuals. Prolonged attempts 

 to hybridize Chinese cabbage species, Brassica Petsai and B. Chinensis, 

 with garden cabbages entirely failed. Apparently distinct species of 

 cruciferous genera are not easy to cross. We have European reports 



