x AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS February, 1911 
Have fresh Try it for 
cauliflower = lettuce 
JU Hot- Pee 
and Cold-frames 
ema 
Pe; 
Treat your plants la Use Sunlight Do Double Glass Sash 
Sanlight Double Gass Sash never needs covering What you can have ahead of time 
It eliminates all the getting outinthecold, wet Cabbage, cauliflower, beets, tomatoes, peppers 
and snow tohandleheavy boardsandsoggy mats. and sweet potatoes toset out early in their season 
The double layer of glass does it —and ready toeat when such things are luxuries. 
Between thet wo layersisa layero‘ dry still air AGENTS WANTED. Write for proposition. 
—% inch thick—a perfect non-conductor of heat Send for these two books 
orcold. The beds are never covered and plants One is our free catalog containing freight pre- 
get all the light from sun-up to sun-down—grow paid and guaranteed delivery proposition. The 
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Grow tomato =x You need 
plants these books 
The late 
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Roof stained with 
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Send for samples of Moss Greens, Tile Reds, Silver 
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SAMUEL CABOT, Inc., Sole Manufacturers STORMFIELD 
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No Delay to Get the Clothes Dry On Wash Day 
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CHICAGO DRYER CO. Be DRYER M’F’G. CO. 
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Think of it—A lawn roller whose weight can be adjusted to the condition 
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: \ A Light Machine for the soft, wet spring lawn 
All 1N ON€ +4 Heavy Machine for the dry, hard summer lawn 
(4 Heavier Machine for the driveway or tennis court 
Why buy one of the old style iron or cement fixed-weight rollers that is 
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or three hundred pounds of useless metal—and freight on it as well—when 
less money will buy a better and more efficient machine in the 
“Anyweight” Water Ballast Lawn Roller 
Remember that a difference of 50 pounds in the weight ofa roller may mean 
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\y) If you desire a fine, soft, springy turf of deep green instead of a coarse, 
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WILDER-STRONG IMPLEMENT COMPANY 
Box 9, Monroe, Michigan 
HYBRIDIZING AND IMPROVEMENT BY SELECTION 
L. of Connecticut is planning to try 
L some experiments in hybridization 
this summer. It will take a great deal 
of care and patience to get any results, and 
even then it may be disappointing. True 
hybridizing to be of any value should be 
carefully recorded, so that the parentage 
of a seedling is known to a certainty. In 
most cases it is better to do the work under 
glass because the conditions are controlled 
more easily. 
The process is a simple one, and all that 
is necessary is to cut through the petals of 
an unopened flower which is to serve as 
the female parent and remove the stamens 
with a scalpel and apply to the stigma the 
pollen taken on a camels-hair brush from 
another flower which is to be the male par- 
ent. The fertilized flower must then be 
tied up in a bag. There will be many dis- 
appointments because many flowers, even 
of the same species, are frequently sterile. 
A more promising field for experiment 
is that of the improvement of species by 
selection. In this work great numbers of 
plants are grown. The seeds of those 
showing strongly marked or desirable char- 
acteristics are saved for future planting. 
T believe. that much could be done in this 
way with many of our native plants, espe- 
cially those which show considerable varia- 
tion in a wild state. Thus Viola pedata, 
which is ordinarily small and blue, has a 
form called bicolor—two blue petals and 
three pale blue petals. I think it would be 
easy to increase the size of this form, and 
it might very probably have its delicate 
fragrance strengthened. Such a result is 
much to be desired, for the flower would 
far surpass the ordinary violet. Other na- 
tives which suggest themselves for im- 
provement by selection are the blood root 
and trillium as to size and lasting auali- 
ties; the prickley pear, the silenes, and the 
phloxes. 
The work should be done on a large 
scale. A thousand plants the first vear 
might give some results but five thousand 
would be better. In a thousand seedlings 
there might be three or four worth saving. 
Seeds and plants should both be saved so 
that in a couple of years there might be 
another to choose from again. In four or 
five years one might in this way get an 
improved form that would be unusual and 
also a valuable addition to our gardens. 
HE season of fresh mushrooms is near 
at hand and the likelihood of poison- 
ing through ignorance in gather- 
ing lends interest to a report recently 
made to the Académie des Sciences by the 
French scientists, MM. Radias and Sartory. 
Selecting two of the most dangerous va- 
rieties of mushrooms, the amanita phal- 
loides and the amanita mappa, for experi- 
ment, an extract of their toxic principle 
was made. Intra-peritoneal injections of 
this virus were then made, using rabbits 
for the experiments, in the manner usual 
when preparing antitoxin serums. At the 
end of four months the rabbits were found 
to be completely immunized, and could eat 
the most poisonous mushrooms without ill 
effect. This indicates that persons suffer- 
ing from mushroom poisoning may be 
cured by a serum prepared in a manner 
similar to that of the diphtheria and rabies 
antitoxins. . 
