i89o 
583 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
ready—August 9—to be cut again. On all thin parts of 
the meadow a good coating of barn-yard manure will help 
to insure a good crop next season. I believe that manure 
pays fully as well as a top-dressing for meadows as it does 
for wheat or rye. The farmer is very foolish who allows 
a single load of manure to remain in his yard when he can 
apply it on his grass land and receive his pay the next 
season in good merchantable hay. Even coarse straw will 
help wonderfully to protect the roots of the grass during 
the winter, if scattered evenly. This litter not only pro¬ 
tects during the winter but acts as a mulch during dry 
spells in the spring. Such treatment of the meadows 
needs only to be practiced to be duly appreciated. 
CHARLES CHAPMAN. 
SOME OF THE RESULTS—FAILURES AND SUC¬ 
CESSES—OF CROSSING PLANTS DURING 
THE PAST SEVENTEEN YEARS. 
(Mr. Carman’s address before the Society of American Florists.) 
( Concluded .) 
Fifteen years ago I planted 62 different kinds of potatoes 
each in a row 65 feet long, for the purpose of crossing them. 
Diligent search during the blooming period failed to reveal 
to me a single grain of pollen. 
In 1874 we began crossing pelargoniums. The best 
varieties of that day were secured and our house was filled 
with them. Each was labeled with a parchment tag and 
they were numbered progressively from 1 to 500 or more. It 
was a simple matter to keep the record of parentage since 
the number of the pollen plant was placed over that of the 
mother, making a proper or improper fraction in form, as 
the case might be. I worked at this two years during the 
plants’ winter and eajly spring season of bloom. The re¬ 
sult was 2,000 cross-bred seedlings, beautiful, symmetrical 
plants, as seedling pelargoniums always are. I had as¬ 
sumed in my inexperience that such painstaking, thorough 
work would insure astounding results. Already with de¬ 
light had we thought of respected friends whose names we 
would give to the best of these wonderful seedlings. Our 
friends were spared the formality of thanking us for such 
honors, however. The wonderful productions—such as the 
world had never before dreamed of—were not 
among them. The whole lot were given away to 
those who cared to take them. Had we known 
as much then as we know now quite a large 
number would have been saved, for there were 
many queer, many charming seedlings among 
them. I endeavored to cross the true pelargo¬ 
niums upon the true geraniums, using G. san- 
guineum as the mother. We were delighted as 
we watched the formation of eight seeds, sad¬ 
dened when we found there was nothing in 
them, mere shells without embryos. I tried the 
potato on the tomato and failed. The Alkekengi 
or Strawberry Tomato upon the potato produced 
one seed-ball and four plants. These plants re¬ 
sembled potatoes in all ways save two: they 
never blossomed, and in the fall when the crop 
was harvested not one tuber, large or small, 
was found upon the underground stems. 
Another interesting experience, though another 
failure, was with petunias. From abroad and at 
home we secured the best seeds procurable, 
selecting a large per cent, of green-margined 
strains. The best of these we crossed, which 
gave us the next year flowers which measured 
over seven inches in diameter. The corollas were 
deeply wrinkled and the green margins very 
wide. These were again crossed, though few 
seeds resulted. We watched over the several plants with 
a tender care full of hope, to see, instead of flowers 
even larger than those of the year before, merely 
rosettes of green leaves without the rudiments of stamens 
or pistils. In this result there may be something homolo¬ 
gous to the green rose, green apple blossoms, etc. A cross 
of the Rose of Sharon (Hibiscus Syriacus) upon Hibiscus 
moscheutos—the Swamp Rose Mallow—gave us many seed¬ 
lings which bore no resemblance to the Rose of Sharon, the 
pollen parent. 
We worked for five or six seasons to improve the edible 
pea by crossing. The pea is self fertilizing and it is necessary 
to cut off the top of the corolla as soon as it appears above 
the calyx and remove the anthers—nine in one bundle and 
one separate. Our first difficulty was to fix the cross¬ 
breeds. They varied indefinitely from year to year. Our 
next difficulty was that the pea-weevil was so abundant 
that the cross breeds failed to germinate, or made a feeble 
growth. For 14 years I have endeavored to change the old 
Tennessee white dent corn (reintroduced as Blount’s) to 
one that would give twice as many ears to the stalk. The 
endeavor is still going on with little or no progress thus far. 
We have endeavored to cross the weigela (Diervilla) and 
honeysuckle (Lonieera), the bush and vine honeysuckles, 
the Mock Orange (Pniladelphus) and the deutzia, the 
smooth and prickly-fruited horse-chestnuts, the catalpa 
upon the old Trumpet Vine, the currant and the goose¬ 
berry, the apple and the pear, the cherry and the plum- 
all in vain. Our grape crosses are all inferior to their 
parents. 
Time admonishes me that unless I would leave you to 
think that all of our work in the way of crossing has re¬ 
sulted in absolute failure, I must hasten to tell you of 
some of our successes. 
About 15 years ago we began crossing wheats. While 
engaged in this way it occurred to me to make the attempt 
to hybridize wheat and rye, the desire foremost in my 
mind being to effect something which had not already been 
effected by others. The result of manipulating and pollen- 
ating many heads was 10 seeds, nine of which germinated 
and wintered safely. Eight resembled wheat in every way 
and the plants scarcely differed from the mother, which 
was Armstrong, a beardless variety. .The ninth plant was 
peculiar in having hairy culms and long, narrow heads, of 
which there were about 20, and these 20 heads were so 
nearly sterile that they bore only a grain or so to each head. 
The other plants were all fertile; several of them were 
again pollenated with rye. It would take a long time to 
tell you the suggestive, instructive history of these plants. 
I have now plants which by blood are 15-16 rye. These 
were nearly sterile, and all attempts to again cross with 
rye have resulted in absolute sterility. Some of the 15-16 
rye plants grow more fertile each year. Many of the three- 
quarter rye are now fully fertile, and so well fixed that we 
are propagating them for introduction, while three of the 
half-breeds have already been introduced. Many of the 
hybrids bear very large kernels, long heads with close 
spikes. Some of them are as early as rye and perfectly 
hardy at my home. Thousands have been destroyed be¬ 
cause of their conspicuous worthlessness. 
Some years ago Prof. Wm. Saunders, of Canada, told me 
he thought he had effected a cross between the raspberry 
and blackberry. We effected crosses the next season and 
have done so every season since. The raspberry alone was 
used as the mother plant the first year. Some of the seed¬ 
lings were raspberries in every way, some were blackberries 
in every way, a few were intermediate. Whether an im¬ 
proved variety will come out of these remains to be seen. 
Thus far. all that have fruited produce imperfect berries, 
i. e., with from one to a dozen drupelets, while others 
bloom but do not set at all. Prof. Saunders’s hybrids 
were, from some accident, destroyed before fruiting. 
I may now speak of our hybrid roses. Let it be borne 
in mind that we have never raised a rose from any other 
seed than that borne by Rosa rugosa, the Ramanas Rose of 
Japan. You all know it is very hardy, bearing leaves of 
exquisite beauty—thick, leathery, with a glossy, wrinkled 
surface. The flowers are large, single and in color white 
or pink. As a father, we used, the first summer, Harison’s 
Yellow, and that alone. This is a very hardy Austrian 
rose, with small leaflets bearing semi-double flowers 
yellow in color. Most of this batch of seedlings died from 
mildew. Only about 30 survived. When it is considered 
Wineberry.” Though this is theRubus phcenicolasius which 
has been in certain nurserymen’s catalogues and in private 
collections for a dozen years, it is still a most remarkable 
raspberry worthy of a place in every collection. The form¬ 
ing berry is inclosed within the calyx sepals which are 
covered with purple, viscid hairs, like the bud of a moss 
rose. This protects the fruit from worms, for all small in¬ 
sects are caught and held by the sticky exudation. As the 
berry ripens, the sepals fall back. The berry, at first 
a bright diaphanous scarlet, turns, as it ripens, to a rich 
ruby color. The berries are juicy and of a refreshing, 
sprightly quality, with scarcely a trace of the peculiar 
raspberry aroma. Upon this we have succeeded in crossing 
both the blackberry and the rose. 
BLACK-FACED SHEEP. 
The London Live Stock Journal prints the picture 
which we re-engrave at Fig. 239, as a typical specimen of 
this race. These animals have been greatly improved of 
late years, the fleece now being much longer and heavier 
than on old-time specimens. They are hardy and active, 
giving mutton of very fine flavor. They are medium in 
weight, but their mutton is of good quality and is “ placed 
where it will do the most good.” They are easy keepers 
and yield fair fleeces of coarse wool. 
BLACK-FACED SHEEP. Fig. 
From London Live Stock Journal. 
239. 
that R. rugosa differs from all other roses in such a marked 
way, one would naturally have supposed that its seedlings 
would be stamped with its peculiar characteristics rather 
than with those of the male parent, which may be said to 
resemble in a general way a hundred other roses. Such 
was not the case. Most of the seedlings resembled the 
male (Harison’s Yellow), in having small leaflets,’which 
were neither wrinkled nor of unusual thickness. The 
flowers were a yet greater surprise. All the single 
flowers are small, the colors being rosy-white, pink, dark 
pink. There were neither yellow nor pure white flowers. 
One bush bears small single flowers, which are a feeble 
rose color around the edges, then white and finally 
yellow about the base. Of the doubles, one bush bears 
pink flowers, which are as “ double ” as a rose well can be. 
The leaflets show the Rugosa blood plainly. Three others 
bear Rugosa foliage. The flowers of two are semi-double, 
of the color of Gen. Jacq. The flowers of the third, which 
during the past year has been propagated for introduction 
by a leading nursery firm, are so nearly the color of Jacq. 
that they cannot be distinguished by color. The odor is 
also the same. It is as nearly a perpetual bloomer as is its 
mother Rugosa. The leaflets, while preserving much of 
the thick, wrinkly texture, are larger than those of 
Rugosa. Now, my friends, would you have guessed that 
the Yellow Harison and the pink and single Rosa rugosa 
would have produced children that bear flowers so closely 
resembling in essential respects Gen. Jacq. ? The next 
year we used pollen from hybrid perpetuals, and the next 
as well as the present season, from yellow teas chiefly. Of 
these none that have bloomed are worthy of remark at this 
time. We have about 300 in all, while the present season 
has been specially favorable to an abundant harvest of 
hybrid seeds. Probably we have no less than 3,000. 
When the tempestuously hardy and distinct characteris¬ 
tics of Rosa rugosa are considered, you would suppose that 
the children of such a rugged mother would be healthy 
and strong. The fact is, however, that nine-tenths die of 
mildew. It is worthy of remark, also, that not one seed in 
10 is viable. They are shells without embryos. 
Finally, you have lately heard of ‘‘Childs’s Great Japan 
SHALL THERE BE A BUFFALO REGISTER? 
ROBT. C. ATJLD, F. Z. S., LONDON. 
The American buffalo is, as it nearly always has been, 
and henceforth will be, possibly the most interesting and 
attractive of all mammals. The lamentable war of exter¬ 
mination to which he has been subjected is certainly an 
atrocious specimen of man’s most wanton foolishness, for 
which he ought to, and does now, I imagine, blush. Doubt¬ 
less the extermination is at last regarded with feelings of 
remorse, which, though now of little avail, yet fill those 
who have latterly championed the animal’s cause 
with fond desires for the restoration of what is ap¬ 
parently an almost vanishing race. The American buffalo 
is, in his royalty, gone—‘‘passed over”—into history. The 
hardly even smoldering embers that remain— 
can they be nursed, fanned into a greater bril¬ 
liance that might give one hope of their being 
revivified into a more life-like, enduring flame ? 
From numbers that would have dwarfed the 
combined forces of all the various bovine species 
and races, how many are left ? According to the 
very best data of Mr. W. T. Hornaday, the num¬ 
ber that can be marshalled is only a total of 
1,091, in the entire world. The enumeration takes 
into account, of course, all individual and scat¬ 
tered specimens in different foreign zoological 
gardens, which contribute materially to the main 
body on which depends the fate—so doubtful 
now —of the species. This main body, this 
specific entity, this restricted force, on which 
the future recuperation of the race depends, 
taking into account only those which we know 
of that can or could be utilized for ordinary 
breeding purposes, at a liberal estimate cannot be 
much more than about 250. Is it possible to pre¬ 
serve that trivial remnant ? 
The buffalo has had, even during all that de¬ 
structive process, observers who have, incident¬ 
ally, recorded about their noble prey a certain 
number of facts which are now positively encour¬ 
aging to us. For instance, it would appear in¬ 
credible that an animal regarded as the embodi¬ 
ment of mammalian ferocity, should have any inherent 
traits of gentleness or docility ; yet suen is indeed the fact. 
In his earlier experiences with his bitter foe, before the 
knowledge of the latter’s proximity engendered an idea of 
a danger which became an instinct transmissible through 
heredity, he was disdainfully indifferent to the destruction 
of his comrades at his side, proud and confident in the 
midst of the great horde that, unaffected still, stood their 
ground. During that period there are numerous records 
of calves which, having been left behind or become separ¬ 
ated from the main body, and particularly from their own 
dams, during the hunt or onslaught, became easily at¬ 
tached to the destroyers of their parents, and blindly fol¬ 
lowed at the heels of the marauders, with all the same 
signs of affection they would show towards their own 
dams. The trait was surely a strong one, indicating a dis¬ 
position to be easily tamed and made gentle by kind 
treatment. Indeed, when we come to investigate further, 
we find that even from the earliest times, the great and 
ferocious American buffalo had been subdued, domesti¬ 
cated, and even crossed on ordinary cows. This buffalo 
blood, doubtless, runs in the veins of a proportion of the 
common cows of to-day as another “ alloy,” showing how 
easily the buffalo type can be mingled with that of the 
domesticated bovine race. Indeed, we find that the buffalo 
is fully amenable to the domesticating process and, 
further, that he conducts himself like his more sedate and 
cooler-blooded bovine cousins. What is suitable to the 
one, is suitable to the other. 
Leaving the most important point—that of domesti- 
cability—it might be objected that we have no use for the 
species. Well, I assert that the buffalo, considering the 
conditions under which he has been reared, as seen and 
delineated on his “native heath,” is far and away ahead 
the common bovine stock as a beef animal, naturally 
Compare the condition of this animal in his natural 
state on the open prairie with the fleshless framework of 
ordinary cattle under similar conditions on the ranch or 
range, in spring or at any other period, aud the truth of 
my assertion will be at once apparent. Both, be it re¬ 
membered, have subsisted on grass alone. Here, then, we 
of 
fed. 
