No. 129.] 527 



we find them here growing wild in the deserts of Arabia and 

 Egypt. That the plum will grow well in a clay loam, there is 

 little doubt, but whether they will grow as well and with as lit- 

 tle care as in a sandy loam, may be questionable ; this last, it is 

 thought, accords more with the nature of the plant. A clay 

 loam must have some sand in it for the plum or any other plant 

 to grow at all, or certainly to grow well. Whether putting a 

 bed of pure clay under every plum tree would protect it from in- 

 sects, is also questionable, perhaps it might. I am inclined 

 though to think it would turn out as the paving experiment did, 

 a failure. Brick or stone are as hard substances, and would be 

 as difficult for insects to perforate as clay. Hybridizing to get a 

 new and improved species of fruit, has been practiced with suc- 

 cess for some years ; this is by connecting or joining two good and 

 different sorts of the same fruit in such a way as to produce one 

 not only to contain the essence and good qualities of both the old 

 ones, but an improvement of these. Grafting and budding are a 

 species of hybridizing, though not of the most perfect kind ; a 

 new fruit is obtained to a certain extent, but the qualities of the 

 tree or plant from which the graft or bud is taken, predominate 

 largely over the grafted one. Sometimes though a portion of the 

 qualities of both can be traced, however small the one may be 

 compared with the other, it is there, and shows the influence of 

 the grafted tree on the connection. The late Mr. Knight, who 

 was more successful perhaps in experiments upon fruits than 

 any other man, hybridized through the flower ; at the proper sea- 

 son he dusted the stigma of the one with the pollen of another, 

 and thus obtained a new fruit, greatly superior in most cases to 

 either of those from whence it sprung. He frequently produced 

 in this way pears, peaches, plums and grapes, which have been 

 generally cultivated and are now considered among the best 

 fruits of Europe. Mr. Knight experimented on the plum in this 

 way, and produced the Imperatrice, and Knighfs large Green Dry- 

 ing, two of the best plums now probably in Europe. It requires 

 great skill and perfect knowledge of the organism of plants, from 

 the root to the flower, to perform experiments of this kind with 

 success. 



Mr. Francis Kelsey, of 275 Tenth Avenue, New- York, called the 

 attention of the Club to his plan ot transportation of honey bees 



