88 PLANT LIFE ON THE FARM. 



continues, " who trailed ropes over their flowering wheat 

 to insure complete fertilization, were doing that which 

 the very appearance of the anthers told them in whispers, 

 not yet heard, had already been accomplished." The 

 pollen of these plants which the winds disperse, is not 

 that which fertilizes, but that which is not required for 

 fertilization. The success of the process depends, as 

 before said, upon the circumstance whether or not the 

 pollen and the feathery stigma are respectively ripe at 

 the same time. If so, then fertilization results ; if not, 

 there is still a chance of cross-fertilization, but if that 

 fail, the flower remains barren. 



Hybridization is a procedure with which the gardener 

 is much more familiar than the farmer. It is only a 

 further development of cross-fertilization. Cross-fertili- 

 zation, as has been said, takes place between flowers of 

 the same individual plant, or between flowers of two dif- 

 ferent individuals of the same species ; but hybridization 

 is effected by crossing the flowers of two separate species, 

 as in the case of the Alsike clover, which is said to be a 

 hybrid between the white or Dutch clover and the red 

 clover. 



Chemical Changes. The chemical changes which oc- 

 cur during the formation of the flower, and especially 

 during the ripening of the seed, have already been alluded 

 to. The contrast between the composition of the leaves 

 and that of the pollen and of the seeds is very striking, 

 and analysis brings out the fact of the accumulation of 

 nitrogenous and phosphatic and mineral matters in the 

 pollen and in the seed. In haymaking it is better, if 

 possible, to mow before the leaves are exhausted of their 

 contents by the seeds, or at any rate, before the latter are 

 shed. If cutting be delayed, a great part of the nutritive 

 matter is withdrawn from the leaves and stem to be 



