WATERING PLANTS WITH HOT 
eee WATER. 
A writer in the Queensland “Agricul- 
- tural Journal’ advances some interesting 
points in this connection, and as hundreds 
of our readers are in a position to test 
them, we should like to hear of somé prac- 
tical experiments being made, and to give 
publicity to any results of value reported 
to us. He says: ‘“We do not know how 
we can sufficiently recommend this practice 
either as a curative or a preventive method. 
During the winter is perhaps the best time 
to adopt the hot water treatment by 
amateurs and those having plants in dwell- 
ing rooms. It is a matter of common 
knowledge that soil enclosed in a pot in 
which a plant is growing ultimately be 
comes sour, and has indeed a certain 
poisonous quality. This toxicity is due 
to the presence of organic acid in excess, 
and which in the ordinary open ground 
conditions would have been removed by 
bottom drainage. Plants growing in pots 
are under ‘distinctly artificial conditions, 
and there are many causes which lead to 
the accumulation of these toxic acids. For 
instance, too deep planting, or when roots 
are sufficiently erated, the use of over hard 
baked pots or glazed receptacles, the com- 
pacting of the soil, and particularly the 
absence of or clogging of drainage.” 
The soil in experiments by the writer 
was copiously watered with water at the 
high temperature of 125 to 130 deg. 
Fahrenheit. The water was applied un- 
til it ran out in abundance from the bot- 
tom of the pots. After this washing the 
plants were placed in a warmer situation. 
After the plants have been treated to a hot 
water bath it would be well to replace the 
loss of food elements by slight applications 
_ of liquid manure. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
A. H. Scarre,—No. 1. Italian Prune (Fellem 
bez). No. 2. Early Orleans. 
ALBERT BRETZKE AND OTHER ENQUIRERS. 
—Mr. Bogue Luffmann’s book, reviewed 
last month, is published by The Book 
Lover’s Library, Melbourne; no price is 
given. 
A. W. Lowsr.—The address of Ernest 
Benary is Erfurt, Germany. 
CarnatTion.—Better results are said to 
be obtained by- breeding between varieties 
from a common source than between varie- 
ties of widely different origin. 
Qureen.—Chrysanthemum flowers with 
‘small heads will yield a larger quantity of 
‘seed than flowers with large heads. 
Grarrer.—A pear grafted on a quince, 
produces larger fruit and yields more abun- 
-dantly than when grafted on pear seed- 
lings. , : 
PINEAPPLE.—Pineapples can be grown 
‘in South Australia, but not commercially. 
Piums.—The peach is a satisfactory 
-stock for plum grafting. 4 
Untry.—Now is the time for budding 
Roses. Any nurseryman will give you a 
practical lesson in budding. This is better 
than any amount of description of the pro- 
“cess. 
Front Garpen.—We are pleased to note 
“that you intend to try Cinerarias. Plant 
“the seeds now. s 
THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER: 
The Oxchard. 
-—— 0 
MARVELS OF FRUIT-BREEDING 
= By Marcus Woopwarp. | 
[From * Pearson’s Magazine.” ] 
(Continued.) 
The fruit slowly ripens, and is brought 
to judgment. There is an exciting 
moment when it is tasted. Many points 
are taken into consideration. Is the 
flavor good? Is the fruit a good color? 
Does the flesh separate freely from the 
stone? Is it as juicy as it should be? 
A great work of selection now begins. 
Only the finest are allowed to survive. 
Perhaps there have been a hundred seed- 
lings—perhaps only one is chosen for fur- 
ther propagation. All the others may be 
bound too closely to the old types; it is 
the exceptional tyne that the propagator 
seeks. Having made his selection, the 
next thing is to “work the tree,” in horti- 
cultural parlance—in other words, to take 
the new buds of the seedlings, and to bud 
them on. to approved stocks. 
“Breeding from the wood” is a matter of 
absolute certainty, unlike “breeding from 
the seed,” for the buds will breed true to 
their parents in every case, whereas you 
can never know how seeds will turn out. 
In the Sawbridgeworth nursery the 
plum stock is generally used for the bud- 
ding of peaches and peaches and 
nectarines ; in America the almond stock. 
The bud is simply inserted in a slit in the 
bark of the plum stock, and is bound 
securely in place. This bud throws out a 
shoot which may bear fruit in its second 
year, when the new tree is one year old, 
technically a “maiden,” but more often 
fruit is not borne until the tree is two 
years old. Now the grower may see 
whether his new specimens are good 
bearers, and, this, of course, is an impor- 
tant qualification. 
And now upon the varied throng of new 
seedling fruits, again the horticulturist ex- 
ercises selection, and, if he still seeks im- 
provement, if he still has an ideal to 
achieve, he again begins the work of cross- 
breeding the individuals, knowing that 
many generations must pass before the 
traits that he wishes to foster shall be fully 
developed. 
And at each successful stage of the 
work a new species of fruit is christened, 
and the trees are put upon the market. 
The kudos is the grower’s, but not neces- 
sarily the profits. The new fruit cannot 
be copyrighted, like a new book. Once 
sent out to the world, any man may pro- 
duce his own editions, and sell them for 
his own benefit. 
It was by judicious selection and cross- 
breeding that there was grown that perfect: 
peach, the Duchess of Cornwall. It is 
the finest and earliest of the English 
peaches. Its pollen parent was the Early 
Rivers peach, dnd its seed parent, the Early 
Rivers nectarine, whose seed parent was the 
famous Lord Napier nectarine, whose seed 
parent was the Early Albert peach, whose 
peach. . ; 
The earliest of all peaches at present is 
the American “Alexander,” a good peach, 
which has, however, an unfortunate hahté. 
of dropping its flower buds when forced: 
The Duchess of Cornwall is faultless in this.’ 
respect, and its flavor of nectarine makes 
it: one of the most: delicious things in the 
world. 
In some cases it has happened that al¥ 
experiments have failed to improve a fruit. 
Thus, in 1869, a large black cherry, ripen- 
ing very early, was raised at Sawbridge- 
worth from the Early Purple Guigne. This 
cherry gained a first-class certificate from 
the Royal Horticultural Society in 1872, 
was,christened the Early Rivers cherry, 
and still holds its own against allcomers, 
never having been improved on. The 
fruit has realised 32/ a bushel! = 
‘Again, one of the earliest and best plums. 
was raised from a seed of the Precoc de 
Tours, in 1834, and has never been super- 
seded, though experiments to improve it 
never cease. The original seedling tree of 
this variety is one of the sights of’ the - 
Rivers’ nursery. : a 
Looking into these experiments in fruit 
improvement one is struck by the idea— 
Why not carry them further? Why not. 
cross two fruits of absolutely different 
nature, and produce an entirely new fruit, 
unlike anything ever known? Why nots 
an orange crossed wit. a cherry, an apple 
with a pear? mitt 
But the expert shakes his head. Fruits, 
to'be cross-bred, must be nearly allied. Tt 
is just possible that occasionally a new 
fruit. might be produced by crossing dif- 
ferent families, but the chances are that 
it would be uesless ana worthless from the» 
market gardener’s point of view. 
The experiments carried out in England 
have all been made with fruits of the same- 
Species. By crossing different kinds of 
plums together and different kinds of 
peaches, cherries, and so on, they have suc- 
ceeded in improving the size and quality, 
the productiveness of all the fruits they~ 
grow, and in many cases in prolonging= 
their seasons. 
For more sensational experiments one: 
must go to America. 
No man living has made more attempts= 
to grow entirely new fruits than Mr. 
Luther Burbank, of Santa Rosa, Cale 
fornia. On the fifteen acres of grcund 
that he devotes to fruit and flower-growmng 
experiments, some astonishing triumphs 
have been won—notably, by the crossing 
of the native American plum with the 
Japanese species, which has made it pos- 
sible to grow luscious plums in various. — 
regions in the States where the old species 
failed. Plum-improvement experiments 
have been Mr. Burbank’s leading line, and 
have given him his greatest victories. But 
his experiments have been endless. 
Some years ago he prospected the possi— 
bilities of crossing fruits over a wide range. 
Taking the native Californian dewberry, 
he treated the blooms with the pollen of 
apple, quince, pear, cherry, hawthorne, 
Chinese quince, strawberry, and other 
fruits, and gathered the seeds of each berry 
