16 GARDENING FOE TI1K SOUTH. 



which was formerly a barren waste and make it produce 

 in abundance many of the plants beneficial to man. 



To the list of benefits conferred on the gardener by 

 the scientific student must be added the power to repro- 

 duce our finest fruits by grafting and budding, making 

 it possible to perpetuate the tree that has been improved 

 to the point of maturing excellent fruit some time before 

 fruit will ripen on the ordinary tree under the usual 

 conditions. The great strides made in the selection of 

 vegetable seeds, ko that the purest seed and the most 

 healthy plants niay be secured, must be credited to the 

 United States Department of Agriculture through the 

 painstaking efforts of its scientific workers. The develop- 

 ment of new and improved varieties of plants by crossing 

 and by hybridization could only be possible through the 

 intelligent experiments of a mind fully cognizant of the 

 scientific laws governing the growth and the develop- 

 ment of flowers and seeds. In this connection may be 

 mentioned as a matter of illustration the splendid work 

 accomplished by T. V. Munson, of Texas, and others in 

 increasing the number of fine new grapes and extending 

 the list of this delightful fruit. Within very recent times 

 the United States Department of Agriculture has suc- 

 ceeded in producing by hybridization hardy orange 

 plants, so that it is now possible to develop this fruit 

 as far north as Southern Georgia with safety, and the 

 indications seem to point to the chance of growing this 

 plant as far north as Augusta, Georgia, without fear of 

 destruction during our ordinary winters. Some of these 

 hybrids are now growing in the horticultural grounds of 

 the Alabama Experiment Station at Auburn, and the 

 experiment will be made during the coming winter to 

 continue the growth without any more protection than 

 is usually given to peach trees, with the hope that the 

 experiment will be successful. 



