HOW MAY I DO IT TO0OO;—BREEDING 
geraniums, petunias, Japanese pinks or violets. 
These will do to begin on, though there are 
many others. He recommends for selection 
alone, the pansy and the sweet pea as offering 
opportunities of unusual promise. Of course 
all of the flowers mentioned, and in fact every 
flower whose life is to be changed in any 
respect, must come under the most rigid 
selection, the eternal choosing of the best. 
When a certain flower, say a sweet pea, has 
been decided on, the pollen from one of the 
two that are going to be crossed in order to 
give birth to a third that; it is hoped, shall be 
better than either parent, is gathered upon a 
little saucer or a watch-crystal, taken to the 
flower which has been chosen as a mate, and 
dusted down upon its stigma. Then this latter 
flower should be isolated from its fellows and 
guarded carefully. A paper tag should be 
fastened to it for identification. Mr. Burbank 
says to watch the bees, and when they are first 
a-wing upon their day’s work, be sure the 
flowers are ready to be pollenated. 
He says that it is wholly unnecessary in or- 
dinary plant-breeding to attempt to cover the 
flower with a screen of tissue paper or gauze. 
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