36 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
ends, and the middle will take care of itself.” 
Thus, Penzance shoots out a ray reflected from 
Birmingham: and to the spark which (it is 
whispered) is mouldering at Salisbury, Halifax 
already responds by a steady blaze ; though, as 
this is to be a peripatetic school, annually wan¬ 
dering to and fro throughout Yorkshire, envious 
Associations may style it a will o’ the wisp. 
We watch the progress of poultry with great 
curiosity. It almost looks as if the old tulipo- 
mania were about to have a modern rival. 
HYBRIDIZING. 
The annexed article on hybridizing we take 
from McIntosh’s Book of the Garden, now pub¬ 
lishing in parts in Edinburgh. It is said to be 
from the pen of Mr. Anderson, one of the most 
scientific and skilful operators in Great Britain. 
To those who would attempt the hybridizing 
or cross-breeding of plants, I will now offer 
some suggestions for their guidance. It is an 
essential element to success that the operator 
be possessed of indomitable patience, watchful¬ 
ness, and perseverance. Having determined on 
the subjects on which he is to operate, if the 
plants are in the open ground, he will have them 
put into pots, and removed under glass, so as to 
escape the. accidents of variable temperature, 
wind, rain, and dust, and, above all, of insects. 
A greenhouse fully exposed to the sun is best 
adapted for the purpose, at least as regards 
hardy and proper greenhouse plants. Having 
got them housed, secure a corner where they 
are least likely to be visited by bees or other 
insects. The plants which are to yield the pol¬ 
len, and the plants which are to bear the seed, 
should be both kept in the same temperature; 
but where this cannot be managed, pollen from 
an outside plant, in genial summer weather, may 
be used, provided it can be got; for there is a 
class of insects which live exclusively on pollen, 
and devour it so fast after the pollen-vessels 
open, that, unless the plant is under a hand¬ 
glass, (which I would recommend,) it is scarcely 
possible to get any pollen for the required pur¬ 
pose. To secure against chances of this nature, 
a sprig with opening bloom may be taken and 
kept in a phial, with water inside, where it will 
get sufficient sun to ripen the pollen. But here, 
too, insects must be watched, and destroyed if 
they intrude. An insect like, but smaller, than 
the common hive bee, which flits about by fits 
and starts, on expanded wings, after the manner 
of the dragon-fly, is the greatest pest, and seems 
to feed exclusively on pollen. The hive bee, 
the humble bee and wasp give the next great¬ 
est annoyance. All these may be excluded by 
netting fixed over apertures from open sashes 
or the like. Too much care cannot be bestowed 
on excluding these intruders, whose single 
touch, in many cases, might neutralize the in¬ 
tended result; for the slightest application of 
pollen native to the parent plant is said by phy¬ 
siologists to supersede all foreign agency, unless, 
perhaps, in the crossing of mere varieties; and 
the truth of this observation consists with my 
own experience. Without due precaution now, 
the labor, anxiety, and watchfulness of years 
may issue in vexation and disappointment. As 
a further precaution still, and to prevent self- 
fertilization, divest the blooms to be operated on 
not only of their anthers, but also of their co¬ 
rollas. Remove also all contiguous blooms upon 
the plant, lest the syringe incautiously directed, 
or some sudden draft of air, convey the native 
pollen, and anticipate the intended operation. 
The corolla appears to be the means by which 
insects are attracted; and though, when it is 
removed, the honey on which they feed is still 
present, they seem puzzled or indifferent about 
collecting it; or if, haply, they should alight on 
the dismantled flower, (which I never have de¬ 
tected,) the stigma is in most cases safe from 
their contact. It will be some days—probably 
a week or more, if the weather be not sunny— 
ere the stigma is in a fit condition for fertiliza¬ 
tion. This is indicated by many families, such as 
Ericaceae, Rosaceae, Scrophularineae, Aurantia- 
ceas, &c., by a viscous exudation in the sutures 
(where these exist) of the stigma, but generally 
covering the entire surface of that organ. In 
this condition the stigma may remain many days, 
during which fertilization may be performed; 
and this period will be longer or shorter as the 
weather is sunny or damp or overcast. In cer¬ 
tain families, such as the Malvaceae, Geraniaceae, 
&c., where the stigma divides itself into feathery 
parts, and where the viscous process is either 
absent or inappreciable by the eye, the separa¬ 
tion of these parts, the bursting of the pollen, 
the maturity of the stigma, and all which a little 
experience will detect, indicate the proper time 
for the operation, sunny or cloudy weather al¬ 
ways affecting the duration of the period during 
winch it maybe successfully performed. As to 
the proper time and season best adapted for 
such experiments, a treatise might be written ; 
but here a few remarks must suffice. As for 
the season of the year, from early spring to mid¬ 
summer I would account the best period; but, 
as I have just observed, I regard all cold, damp, 
cloudy, and ungenial weather as unfavorable. 
On the other hand, when the w'eather is genial, 
not so much from sun-heat as at times occurs 
from the atmosphere being moderately charged 
with electricity; when there is an elasticity, so 
to speak, in the balmy air, and all nature seems 
joyous and instinct with life; this, of all others, 
is the season which the hybridist should im¬ 
prove, and above all, if he attempts muling. The 
hybridist should be provided with a pocket lens, 
a pair of wire pincers, and various-colored silk 
threads. With the lens he will observe the 
maturity of the pollen, and the condition of the 
stigma, whether the former has attained its 
powdery, and the latter (if such is its nature) 
its viscous condition. If he find both the pol¬ 
len and the stigma in a fit state, he will, with 
the pincers, apply an anther with ripened pollen, 
and by the gentlest touch distribute it very 
thinly over the summit of the stigma. The 
operation performed, he will mark it by tying 
round the flower stalk a bit of that particular 
colored silk thread which he wishes to indicate 
the particular plant which bore the pollen, and at 
the same time tie a bit of the same silk round 
the stem of the latter, which will serve till re¬ 
corded in a note-book, which should be kept by 
every one trying experiments on a large scale. 
It is quite unnecessary to offer any directions 
as to the results to be effected. If it is desired 
to reproduce the larger, finer-formed, or higher- 
colored bloom of a plant having a tall, strag¬ 
gling, or too robust a growth, or having too 
large or too coarse foliage in a plant without 
these drawbacks, I need not suggest to select 
in another species of the same family, a plant of 
an opposite character and properties—say of 
dwarf, compact growth, handsome foliage, and 
free-flowering habit; and if such can be ob¬ 
tained, work with it, making the latter the seed- 
bearer. Or, if it be desirable to impart the fra¬ 
grance of a less handsome kind to another more 
handsome, I would make the cross upon the lat¬ 
ter. I cannot speak with certainty from my 
own experiments, how far perfume may be 
so communicated; but I have some things far 
advanced to maturity to test it; and I entertain 
the hope that fragrance may not only be so 
imparted, but even heightened, varied, and im¬ 
proved. Or if it be desired to transfer all or 
any valuable property or quality from a tender 
exotic species to a native or hardy kind, work 
upon the latter; for so far as constitution goes, 
I agree with those who hold that the female 
overrules in this particular. I would offer this 
caution to those who wish to preserve the puri¬ 
ty of certain flowers for exhibition, especially 
those having white grounds, not to cross such 
with high-colored sorts. I once spoiled a white 
bloomed Calceolaria for exhibition, by crossing 
it with a crimson sort; all the blooms on those 
branches where the operation had been per¬ 
formed being stained red, and not the few flow¬ 
ers merely on which the cross was effected. In 
this note, already too long, I cannot further 
illustrate my remarks by recorded experi¬ 
ments in the various tribes upon which I have 
tried my hand; but I cannot leave the sub¬ 
ject without inculcating, in the strongest man¬ 
ner, the observance of the rules I have laid 
down to prevent vexatious disappointments. If 
any doubts arise about the cross being genuine 
or effectually secured, let not the seeds be sown. 
Three, four, five, and even six years, must oft¬ 
entimes elapse with trees and shrubby things 
ere the result can be judged of; and if eventu¬ 
ally it prove a failure, or even doubtful, it is 
worse than labor lost, inasmuch as it may mis¬ 
lead. If there is no great departure from the 
female parent, the issue is to be mistrusted. It 
is singular, if well accomplished, how much of 
both parents is blended in the progeny. Gen¬ 
tlemen eminent as physiologists have read na¬ 
ture’s laws in these matters a little differently 
from what my own humble experience has 
taught me, and assigned to the progeny the con¬ 
stitution and general as>[jeet uf Lliv. ■ - -- - | 
while they gave the inflorescence and fruit to 
the other. I have crossed and inverted the 
cross, and can venture to give no evidence on 
the point, except, perhaps, as to constitution, to 
which the seed-bearer, I think, contributes 
most. A well-managed hybrid should and will 
blend both parents into a distinct intermediate, 
insomuch so as to produce often what might 
pass for a new species. If the leaning be to 
one more than another, it is probably to the fe¬ 
male, though this will not always be the case. 
Again, it is asserted that a proper hybrid—i. e., 
one species which is crossed with another species 
which is separate and distinct from it—will pro¬ 
duce no fertile seeds. This does not accord with 
my observations. Dr. Lindley has remarked 
very justly, (Theory of Horticulture, p. 69,) 
“ But facts prove that undoubted hybrids may 
be fertile.” My hybrid, Veronica Balfouriana, 
(an intermediate between V. saxatillis and V. 
fruticulosa,) seeds, I would say, more abundant¬ 
ly than either par'ent; and the progeny from 
its self-sown seeds I find to be of various shades 
of blue, violet, and red, rising in my garden, some 
having actually larger, finer, and higher-colored 
blooms than the parent bearing the seed; and 
I am familiar with the same result in other 
things. Yet I am far from asserting fertility in 
the produce between two members of allied but 
distinct genera—such, for example, as in the 
Brianthus, which I have found to be unproduc¬ 
tive, whether employed as male or female parent. 
As above conjectured, its parents were far too 
remote in nature’s own arrangement. The 
hybridist has a field before him ever suggestive 
of new modes of acting. He may try, as I have 
done, what may be effected under various-tinted 
glass. My persuasion is, that I effected from a 
pale yellow, a pure, white-grounded Calceolaria, 
by placing the plants under blue-shaded glass, 
by which the sun’s rays were much subdued. He 
may also apply chemical solutions to plants with 
ripening seeds. Nature, in producing, as it 
sometimes does, plants with blooms of colors 
opposite to those of the parent, must be gov¬ 
erned by some law. Why may not this law be 
found out ? For example, under what influence 
was the first white Fuchsia, the F. Venus Victrix, 
produced, the purest yet of all the race, and the 
source from which all the whites have been 
derived ? 
-» » «- 
A man can no where find as good a saving 
bank as emptying his purse into his head.— Dr. 
Franldin. 
Sagacity of a Gandek.— -One day last week 
a gander was “on duty” in keeping guard 
over a flock of goslings, which led to a rencontre 
between his gandership and a rooster. The 
contest, however, was of short duration, for the 
gander seized the cock by the neck and straight¬ 
way flew into the canal, when he thrust his an¬ 
tagonist under water, and there held him until 
he was dead. 
The Wheat Crop. —The surplus of wheat in 
Ohio this year is estimated at 13,000,000 bush¬ 
els. McKenzie's Message says: “Calculators 
think that Upper Canada will have a surplus 
this year over any former season of 4,000,000 
bushels of wheat.” 
