SEEDS AND, SEED-GROWING. 



0 



CARE OF STOCKS, AND HOW THEY ARE IMPROVED BY CROSS-FERTILIZATION. 



Fourth Paper. 



N seed-saving we may never lose 

 sight of the principle that applies 

 alike to every class and variety — 

 namely, in selecting plants for seed 

 production the most healthy must 

 always be chosen, and these be so 

 insulated as to have no weak plants of the same 

 species, or even genus, in the vicinity, lest the pol- 

 len, carried on the wings of the bee, or the wings of 

 the wind, fertilize the flowers and produce a less 

 vigorous progeny. Vigor or weakness in the plant 

 is hereditary; and will be transmitted as surely in 

 the plant as with the animal. It is also important 

 that all stock plants should be so isolated that it 

 will be impossible for the pollen of an inferior 

 strain, as regards quality, to come in contact with 

 their flowers, as this would counteract all the efforts 

 made by selection to develop a higher type. The 

 same rule will apply as to earliness or lateness, 

 whichever character may be desired. 



In short, whatever character may be desired in 

 the offspring, the elements must be sought in the 

 parents. If new varieties are desired, an inter- 

 mediate form of shape, color or quality of flower or 

 vegetable, select for parents the best defined types 

 of existing varieties — those of the most positive 

 characters in direct opposition to each other. For 

 instance, a cross between a pure white and a deep 

 crimson flower will be quite likely to produce flowers 

 distinctly marked and defined, while neutral tints, 

 beautiful as they are, will be likely to produce 

 others wanting in real character. The same is true 

 with fruits. A cross between a well-defined sweet 

 and a positively sour apple will be much more 

 likely to give in the offspring an intennediate va- 

 riety of excellent flavor than if a cross had been 

 effected between two good varieties of similar excel- 

 lence. It may be desirable to unite the strength of 

 one plant with the quality of another in order to se- 

 cure a variety possessing the properties of both. 

 This will be the subject of a future paper ; in this 

 we only refer to continuing of varieties that now 

 exist. 



HYBRIDIZATION OF THE PEA. ' 



An interesting illustration of h3'bridization is shown 

 by Mr. Knight, an English horticuhural writer, who died 



about 1838. The following account was published in 1810: 

 "Blossoms of a small lohih' guriicn pea, in which the 

 males (anthers) had previously been destroyed, were im- 

 pregnated with the farina (pollen) of a large clay-colored 

 kind loi/li purple blossoms. The produce of the seeds 

 thus obtained were of a dark grey color, but these, hav- 

 ing no fixed habits, were soon exchanged by cultivation 

 into a numerous variety of very large and extremely 

 luxuriant 7ohite ones, which were not only much larger 

 and more productive than the original white ones, but 

 the number of seeds in each pod was increased from 

 seven or eight to eight or nine, and not unfrequently to 

 ten. The newly-made grey kinds I found were easily 

 made -vliite again by impregnating their blossoms with 

 the farina (pollen) of another white kind. In this experi- 

 ment the seeds, which grew towards the point of the 

 pod, and by position were first exposed to the action of 

 the pollen, would sometimes produce seeds like it in 

 color, whilst those in the other end would follow them. 



"In other instances the whole produce of the pod 

 would take the color of one or other of the parents ; and 

 I had once an instance in which two peas at one end of 

 the pod produced white seeds like the male, two at the 

 other end grey ones like the female, and the central 

 seeds took the intermediate shade, a clay color." 



When any desired change has been effected by this 

 method, it is important to perpetuate such of the va- 

 rieties produced as show a marked change in the line of 

 improvement, either as regards size, quality or product- 

 iveness. This can only be done, or is best done, by 

 continuous planting in the same kind of soil in a given 

 locality and, so far as possible, under similar conditions 

 of cultivation, more particularly in the use of manures. 

 Improvement will ever follow selecting the best for seed, 

 and giving the crop a generous and uniform treatment. 

 Degeneration will as surely follow neglect in any of 

 these particulars. 



In the development of a new variety it matters not 

 what it may be. Always select the best for seed pur- 

 poses, and plant the product where it will not become 

 contaminated by cross-fertilization with an inferior stock 

 or strain. All kinds of garden vegetables, as well as 

 grains or root crops, may be materially improved by the 

 above-described methods. It is, moreover, a work both 

 interesting and profitable. 



BY CROSS-FERTILIZATION OF POTATOES 



they have been vastly improved, both as regards quality 

 and yield. The efforts made by specialists in this direc- 

 tion have been of incalculable value to the grower. 

 Now, how shall he reap the greatest advantage from the 



