Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/349

Rh conducts his experiments, he is able to work on a much greater scale than is possible in Europe. While we can only select from a few hundred of seedlings, Burbank can get tens of thousands into blossom. In this way the number of years necessary to bring about improvements can be considerably reduced. It required in Europe more than half a century to produce the beautiful Amaryllis forms, which we admire so much. Burbank has got wonderful results in much shorter time. In the process of selecting he preferred those forms which required the shortest time to come into blossoms, and by following up this method he succeeded in greatly shortening the duration of life from seed to seed, as it is called. It is evident what this means. Instead of having to wait four or five years after a crossing, before the result could be judged by the flowers, Burbank can make his selection in half the time. This, of course, not only includes saving of time, but also reduces the size of the cultures, and consequently the expenses. Burbank's aim is to make Amaryllis one of the most common ornamental garden plants, which will find its place in parks and private residences, in city gardens as well as near the farmer's humble dwelling. In order to introduce new forms into the stock of Amaryllis, Burbank endeavored to cross them with the related Crinums, and, from what we saw, his first trial was crowned with success. From the Florida swamps he obtained a wild Crinum Americanum, which has proved its fitness for crossing, and at the same time he had in his hothouse varieties from tropical regions, which he was going to cross with more hardy forms, so that they would feel at home in the California climate.

Among all the above mentioned points upon which I desired to draw special attention is the shortening of life from seed to seed. As the experiments, with a few exceptions, are conducted on perennials, and as vegetative propagation only is resorted to for multiplication, it would in many cases necessarily take several years before the plants flowered. Where repeated crossings have to be made this would cause considerable difficulty.

The means which make it possible to shorten the vegetative period are three: first, the splendid climate of California; second, the selection of the earliest flowering seedlings, and, finally, the method of grafting. Experience has taught us that the best way of forcing the stem or branches of seedlings to an early development is by grafting them on older trees. On a good-sized plum tree may be grafted, as said before, hundreds of seedlings. They will bloom in a couple of years, and as soon as they bear fruit selections can be made. The inferior grafts are then removed, so as to allow room for the good ones to develop more rapidly.

In the process of artificial crossing the greatest possible precautions have to be taken in the application of pollen. Yet the method is as