Extract from Florist Exchange, Sept 20II1. 



"We now understand that crossing is good for the species ; because it 

 constantly re-vitalizes offspring with the strongest traits of the parents, 

 and ever presents new combinations. But crossing alone can accomplish 

 comparatively little, the chief power in the progression of plants is selec- 

 tion; the force which augments, develops and fixes types, and we must 

 constantly select the best, in order to make any advancement." 



—BAILEY. 



* ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ 



"You will expect me to speak to you to-night of that borderland of 

 mystery, where man is permitted to join hands with the Great Creator 

 of the Universe in guiding those forces of which he knows so little ; until 

 the highest flights of human fancy, picturing seeming impossibility, in 

 exquisite beauty and never ending variation in form and color, sink into 

 comparative insignificance, as the veil is slowly lifted before our expect- 

 ant and wondering gaze." 



H. H. GROFF, before Waterloo Horticultural Society, 

 and Provincial Association of Fruit Growers. 



* * * ❖ ❖ 



"Varieties improved from man's point of view must receive kind 

 treatment and richer food than wild forms of the same plant. The cul- 

 tivated plant, like the domesticated animal, yields in a measure its powers 

 of self-defense to adapt itself to our service. Man must in return provide 

 for its safety and nourishment. In the improvement of plants the action 

 of man, much like influences which act on plants in the wild state, only 

 brings about slow and gradual changes, often scarcely noticeable at first. 

 But if the first efforts toward the desired end be kept on steadily, the 

 changes will soon become greater and greater, and the last stages of the 

 improvement will become much more rapid than the first one." 



— VILMORIN. 



* * * * * 



"Without the resolution in your hearts to do good work so long as 

 your right hands have motion in them, and to do it whether the issue be 

 that you die or live, no life worthy the name will ever be possible to you, 

 while in once forming the resolution that your work is to be well done, 

 life is reallv one, here and forever." 



— RUSKIN. 



"We are now standing just at the gateway of scientific horticulture- 

 only have been a few steps in the measureless fields, which will stretch 

 out as we advance into the golden sunshine of a more complete knowledge 

 of the forces which are to unfold all the graceful forms of garden beauty 

 and wealth of fruits and flowers." — BURBANK. 



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