1846. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
3® 
BUt when need requires it, all the rest of the animal 
creation must bow to the wants of man. But some 
would alter the original law, so as to read thus: “ c And 
have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowls of the air, and over every living thing thatmoveth 
apon the earth/ except such birds as are handsome, and 
sing prettily—such thou shall not touch.” Every part 
Of the creation was pronounced good ; yet every thing 
equally was to be sacrificed to the wants of man when 
he needed it, whether for food or for protection— 
and the notion that mere external beauty,—such as taste 
or fashion may regard such,—is to shield and protect, 
is too much like the modern practice of acquitting 
handsome, rich, or well-dressed scoundrels in courts of 
Jaw, for crimes committed. 
These remarks, every one will doubtless understand, 
apply only to such birds or other animals, as render 
themselves decided nuisances by doing more mischief 
than good; and they were in part prompted by a leader 
In the New-England Farmer, written by a correspon¬ 
dent, who says that a .«love of birds ought to be a part 
of our religion,” forgetting that a moscheto, when 
microscopically examined, is as perfect and beautiful an 
animal as a bird, and equally the work of creative wis¬ 
dom; who denounces as destitute of humanity, the man 
who does not agree with him, in his notions of beauty 
and music, and with his partialities towards certain 
parts of the Creator’s works, all equally pronounced 
i( good;” and who makes the following profound re¬ 
mark, needing no comment, “ Original sin attaches to 
the poor snake; but the poor bird is only accountable 
for a little actual transgression .” X. 
CROSS-BREEDING OF VEGETABLES. 
Many people seem to have strange notions in regard 
to the “ mixing,” as it is called, of plants or vegetables. 
They suppose, for instance, that different varieties of po¬ 
tatoes, by being planted in the same hill, will, by some 
mysterious process, become so contaminated that the 
original kinds are not produced, but spurious mongrels, 
only, are generated. How this supposed mixture is pro¬ 
duced, we have never seen any attempt to explain; and 
we presume those who believe in such transmutation, 
have themselves but vague ideas of the process. 
We do not, however, by any means intend to deny 
that mixtures of different varieties, and sometimes dif¬ 
ferent species of plants may take place; but we do 
contend that such mixtures can only take place in a 
<natural way—that is by actual cross-breeding. The 
different varieties of beets may be mixed, and the 
different varieties of turneps, and even the different spe¬ 
cies of the brassica tribe—cabbages, radishes, turneps, 
mustard, &c.,—are susceptible of intermixture with 
each other through the medium of the b.’ossoms, and in 
no other way. They might be grown in the closest 
contiguity forever, and if not suffered to blossom, would 
never mix; and we should as soon think of the bulbs 
of different kinds of beets or turneps mixing while 
growing together, as that the tubers of potatoes could 
be mixed in that manner. A mixture in either case 
would be altogether miraculous. 
When plants are in flower, the pistils, or female or¬ 
gans, are liable to receive the pollen, or impregnating 
dust from the stamens, or male organs, not belongingto 
the same flower, or to the same variety; and when this 
happens, the seed so produced contains the germ of a 
new variety resulting from the intermixture. 
Now in relation to potatoes, the tubers are not seed— 
the seed is produced in the balls, or fruit, on the top of 
the stalk, being preceded by blossoms as all other 
fruit is. 
An example of the manner in which potatoes mix in 
the blossom, came under our observation in an experiment 
made in this vicinity by Mr. Daniel Poineer. In 1845, 
he had growing in the same lot, the Mercers, Pink-Eyes, 
English-Whites, Long-Reds, (or Merinos,) Blue Pink- 
Eyes, (or Round Blues,) and a kind called Prolific Blues. 
From the latter he saved a quantity of balls, which last 
spring were planted in a bed by themselves. Some of 
the plants were struck with the blight, or “disease/' 
and had their growth stopped at the time other potatoes 
in the lot were attacked. Otherwise they grew well* 
and some of the tubers attained the size of hen’s eggs. 
On digging them, there were found to be some six or 
seven kinds, only one of which bore any special resen*- 
blance to the kind from which the balls had been taken, 
and none were exactly like any of the other kinds 
grown in the field; but there were Whites, Reds, 
Pink-Eyes, &c., all evidently new varieties; the ap¬ 
pearance of most of them betraying their parent- 
age, or denoting from what mixture of kinds they 
had originated. Another years’ trial will more fully 
develope the qualities of the new kinds, when il 
may appear that some of them are of superior value. 
Mixing vegetables or fruits, is commonly called hy¬ 
bridizing. The late T. A. Knight, president of tins 
London Horticultural Society, was distinguished for his 
success in the production of new and valuable kinds 
of fruits—apples, pears, and cherries—by this mode. 
His practice was to select flowers from two varieties 
which he deemed most likely by intermixture to pro¬ 
duce the desired improvement. He then cut out with 
scissors, all the stamens from the blossoms which 
he wished to impregnate with the other variety. This 
was done as soon as the flower wa3 developed, and be¬ 
fore the pollen was formed. The flowers were then 
protected by thin muslin tied carefully over, till the 
stigma became fully dilated, and the pollen might be 
shaken from the stamens of other blossoms, when the 
covering was removed, and the pollen from flowers of 
the impregnating variety, well scattered over the pis¬ 
tils, and the covering resumed till the fruit commenced 
swelling. The seeds formed by flowers thus impregna¬ 
ted, produced trees which bore fruit showing the re¬ 
sults of the intermixture, and which was in many in¬ 
stances of improved quality. 
We have been informed that the Shakers of Niskayu- 
na have a very choice kind of grapes, produced by cross¬ 
breeding. 
CULTIVATING ROUND FRUIT TREES. 
The importance of the clean and thorough cultiva¬ 
tion of the ground round young fruit trees, was veiy sa¬ 
tisfactorily shown by an experiment the present season, 
on the grounds of T. G. Yeoman of Walworth, Wayne 
co., N. Y. A part of his young standards grew on ground 
occupied with field beets, a part with carrots, and the 
re^t with young fruit trees only a few inches high, in 
rows about four feet apart. The latter, of course, made 
much less draft on the soil than the others, covering as 
they did but a very small part of the surface, all being 
kept thoroughly cultivated. The trees on this part conse¬ 
quently made a most vigorous growth; on the carrot 
ground the growth was very conspicuously diminished- 
while on the ground occupied by beets, the young shoots 
were not more than one-half the length of those first 
mentioned. This experiment is the more interesting 
from the fact that these root crops, if well hoed, as they 
were in the present instance, are found to be incompa¬ 
rably better for the trees, than the very common way 
of planting them in grain fields or in grass. Potatoes 
were not tried; but we have seen a row of peach trees 
growing in potato grounds, none of which had matte 
shoots of less than a foot and a half, while side by side, 
in wheat, under circumstances otherwise precisely the 
same, none of the trees had grown more than three 
inches. 
The best orchard of bearing peach trees we ever 
saw, was on ground kept perfectly clean and mellow by 
cultivation, no other crop being allowed to occupy the 
soil; and we have no doubt that those who own orchard? 
of fine fruit would find it greatly to their advantage to 
discard every other crop on ground thus occupied, in 
order to keep it perfectly mellow by successive plowing 
and harrowing; this would certainly be the case where, 
as in many cases, the orchard proves more valuable 
than all the rest of the farm. 
