The Portland daily press., 1899-09-23
HYBRIDIzING PLANTS.
Curious Experiments bv the U. 5. De-
psrtment OF Agriculture.

At the international conferen se on
liberalization at London, Mr.. Herbert j.
Weber, Of the U. s. Department Of Agri-
culture, gave a lecture with lantern
demonstration on the work Of his depart
mant In plant LIBERALIZATION. He said
that the work Of hybridiz,ng was started
not more than three years ago, and the
results attained were far from complete
All the plants on which they bad worked
were in the main, horticultural products
of Ameriop, and one Of the principal was
the orange plant.
A few years ago almost the entire
orange industry for season In Florida
was destroyed by frost. in single night
and about n hundred million dollars was
lost by the damage done. In consequence
of this they arrived at the conclusion. that
either they must abandon ths orange in
dustry In Florida or secure variety Of
orange which WAS very much harder, and
which would resist the frost. According
ly they set to work to hybridizs the Japa-
ness orange. Citris trifoliata, with the
sweet orange.
The tirfoliata was found as far north
as New York, and was used as hedge
plant The fruit was bitter -and fesinous,
and was ussd as preserve fruit; but the
plant was hardy in character, and by by
bfidizing 1t with the common sweet
orange 1t was hoped that the frosts would
be resisted and that they might obtain
ny brids of the two species aud a deoidu.
Gus as we'll as an evergreen orange.
After illustrating the new plants by
means of the lantern, Mr.. Webber said
that the true hybrid plants had been
found very much more vigorous than the
common sweet orange His department
had also made experiments with the view
of combining the character of the tan
gerine with the common orange In order
TO secure, If possible, the loose skin of the
tAngerine with the common variety.
The sweet orange was of much better
quality aud more desirable than the tan
gerine, but II by hytridizing they could
| produce fruit Co combine the character
| of the two he thought that such fruit
would take the market; and they were
working on those lines. They were fur
| Their endeavoring to Improve the quality
of the orange by crossing the bitter-sweet
pomelo with the sweet orange. He gave
Illustrations Of the different foliage and
developments of the plants brorrrt about
| by hybrldizing. - -
| The United States agrIcultulDl ..epart-
| msnt had, he said, als1 been working
more or less with pineapples; and he
L
that by the crossing Of fruits winch wers
commonly seedless they would frequently
produce seeds. and that the plants so
dealt with were more vigorous and better
able to resist disease. Another branch of
| their work was with cotton plants, the
| main point being to hybridizs between
| the Upland cotton and the SO called Sea
Island cotton.
The improvements obtained Mr., Web
Der illustrated by means of lantern slides
snd said that by this LIBERALIZATION they
hoped to extend this cotton industry con-
sideIably. Ihe last experiment. dealt with
by the lecturer was the hybridization of
corn (maize), by producing the wild
species into the civilized strain. They
were endeavoring to cross the common
maize with the wild Mexican grass Theo-
smith which was supposed to be the pro-
genitor of maize; but, of course, there
must be numerous generations before
they could bring out the character OF the
corn to any great effect.