156 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. igo6. 



and a considerable improvement in quality and vigor, might 



be gained by calling in cross-fertilization to the aid of the culti- 

 vator as soon as the fruit of the trees (say the second gener- 

 ation) begins to show symptoms of amelioration. By impreg- 

 nating them v^ith pollen of the finest varieties w& conceive that 

 the next generation would produce excellent fruit and at a 

 saving of twenty or thirty years." * 



In 1844 C. M. Hovey, one of the most successful of the earlier 

 plant breeders, definitely championed the cause of cross-fertili- 

 zation on the ground that " the results will be obtained in a 

 shorter period and, we believe, equally as favorable as by the 

 method of successive generations alone." Mr. Hovey spoke 

 from experience, his first cross-bred strawberry seedling having 

 been brought to notice in 1838. The striking successes of 

 Hovey, Allen, Downing, and others, soon led to the general 

 adoption of cross-fertilization as a method in the improvement 

 of fruits, and for the last half century the advance has been in 

 the minor factors and not in a better understanding of prin- 

 ciples. Up to the present time the question of dominant and 

 recessive characters, as developed in the offspring of crosses, has 

 had very little bearing upon the status of American pomology. 



The early hybridizers often used a mixture of pollen, believ- 

 ing that it was possible for the same seed to be influenced by 

 pollen from two different sources, and the possibility of super- 

 foetation was often discussed. The Duchess grape is a result 

 of one of these mixed crosses. This was produced by Caywood 

 " by crossing a White Concord seedling with Delaware or 

 Walter, the pollen of both being applied at the same time." * 



One breeder of grapes claimed to produce his new varieties 

 by a new and very simple process, namely by diluting the pollen 

 of the male flower with rain water and then applying it to the 

 pistils of the variety selected as the female parent.f 



As a knowledge of the process of fecundation became more 

 clear, other methods of securing desired combinations were 

 adopted and compound hybrids or derivative hybrids became 

 common. Some of the best results have been obtained by such 

 combinations ; for example the Brighton grape, which is a 



* Bushberg Catalogue, 3rd edition, p. 94. 

 tibid, p. 118. 



