PROPAGATION. 293 



over the pistil of the flower previously prepared. 

 This is a critical moment ; for just as you re^ 

 move the covering from the prepared flower the 

 pollen floating in the air may rush in and fertil- 

 ize the pistil before you can touch it, and thus 

 your purpose will be defeated. The fact is, 

 there can be no certainty about hybridizing the 

 grape unless the vine is shut up by itself, and 

 all flowers removed from it except those to be 

 fertilized. Hence it is that many think they 

 have raised hybrids when they really have not, 

 and it is nothing but the imagination that sees 

 in them any thing of a hybrid character. The 

 hybrid business is being rather overdone. 



Carefully conducted experiments in raising 

 seedlings and hybrids should be encouraged, 

 even to the extent, as elsewhere remarked, of 

 extending the protection of the law to all plants 

 raised in this way. Proprietorship, in this 

 respect, should be as absolute as it is in regard 

 to any other kind of property. If this were 

 so, it would make inoperative the excuse often 

 given for " coddling 1 ' seedling plants to a degree 

 that renders any real knowledge of their hardi- 

 ness and period of ripening almost an impos- 

 sibility. 



It may be remarked, in conclusion, that seed- 



