The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-03-08
EXPERIMENTS IN ORANGES.
uopE OF PRODUCING A VARIETY
THAT WILL RESIST FROST.

From the New York Sun.
,,-,sbington. Feb. 25.-In spite Of the
,..,.,ass situation in which many of the
7,,.-;1a orange growers now find them
.s the patient work which the exper-
,ts Of the agricultural department are
.. eives ground for hope of the u't-
.uceess of orange raising in the East
srates. Heretofore attempts to outgen-
,., temperature fatal to the golden fruit
.,.a been confined to moving the grow
L area further and further south until
,,,. qroves are to be found below Tampa,
,.bich. until lately, was considered fatal
t..ond the frost line. The great cold wave
Of 1874 however, wiped out all f:ost lines
in Florida. and now, In view OF the fact
that it is impossible to get any further
so5tb. the proposition is to create hardy
orange which can resist the frosts that
visit Florida and even. it is hoped, bear
t,Y,r in states further North.
Il may seem something like fairy tale
10 talk of growing shiny-led red orange
trees laden with golden fruit along the
hanks of the Hudson, but the experts OF
the department of agriculture declare that
his should be by no means an impossible
If. Stranger changes in horticulture have
been brought about by artificial means.
Herbert ]. Weber, a vegetable pathologist
If the department, is authority for the
statement that fully as remarkable things
have happened in plant life as the pro
duction of a hardy orange, and he firmly
believes that this result will be attained III
some measure at least A hardy orange,
If evolved. will result from naturalization
n the tropical orange and the hardy Jap
enese trifonate orange CITRUS trifoliata),
the crossing of the one on the other. The
trifoliate is perfectly hardy as lar north
As Philadelphia, but its fruit Is useless, so
that the idea is either to introduce some
of its hardy qualities into the Southern
orange or to add to it some of the qualities
of the Southern orange and improve the
fruit of the trifoliate. This work has ar
ready been done, in fact, and Mr.. Web
Der has some thousand crossed trees flom
one to two years old which show distinct
" in appearance traits of both parents. 1t
is hoped that they possess likewise the
frost-resisting and fruit producing quail.
ties in combination. This cannot be de-
termined for some years to come. The
Young trees are to be sent to Florida and
Georgia and budded On orange and trifo-
late trees
The operation of naturalization is inter
esting, yet quite simple to one understand
ing the growth of plants. Many species
of plants and trees are self-fertliZing and
will perfect fruit from their own pollen.
All that is necessary to cross tertAlze the
orange is to open the flower buds. a little
prematurely, before the stamens have al
lowed the pollen to escape and fertilize
the stigma, and cut the stamens out; then
transfer the pollen from the other species
4 to the stigma by means of a brush, stick
4 or blowpipe.
Much work along this line has been done
and with success. Some years ago the
phylloXera threatened to wipe out the
grape and wine industry of France. 1t was
81 found that American grapes were resist
ant to the disease, and these grapes were
hibHdized with the French wine grape,
producing crosses which retain the flavor
OF the vine and yet have proved entirely
resistant to the philoXera. The work of
hybrdization is extremely interesting to
the scientist and highly important to the
iIult grower and the farmer. No other
mode OF Improvement of fruits and vege-
tables offers such possibilities as cross
Ierulzation. Hybrids, in almost every
case, combine the better qualities of the
TWO parents and are uniformly more Wig
oIous IMAM the parents. The cross of the
Cahlornla black walnut on the common
piacK walnut produced a tree which grows
ABOUT -FOUR times as rapidly as the parents.
making a highly valuable timber tree and
produces nuts much larger than those of
eI'ner OF the parent trees. A familiar ex-
1 %npie Oh the hybrid is the Keiffer pear.
me Chihese sand pear an almost worth
less frult, crossed itself-probably through
lhe agency of bees or insects-upon Faro
Pedh pear trees, and produced the Keif-
~ ana the LIE Cont greatly improving
we quanty OF the fruit of the sand pear
@nu aHordlng remarkably vigorous tree
me ne helfler now holds the first place on
u'V american market and can be grown
pear. tue orulhary
dem IMPORTANT work is being done by the
p 'l tiheht OF agriculture in hvbridizine,
Sea island cotton with the coror,o,, 80,
eolS' Inc sea island species sells for from
o9"'s 10 0O cents a pound whereas COM
on COTTON is worth cents. The com
H H'DH cotton has a staple about three
ie 0ui 'ns Oh an inch in length, ana The sea
uu mas one about two inches long
'"S IoHg staple constitutes its value. IN
$50 lor adulterating silk A cross
NOR - - year produced q plant much
0ie vigorous than either Darent and
ydrihg staple about half wav between
ne Two and much heavier than either.
t"Portaht results are looked for from this
4 hybridization. ms
II is stated that a wheat has been de-
1e'oped In England by crossing a fine va
ley with a wild, worthless wheat. which
P,ouuces fully double the yield of the best
"ioWh variety, and the United States gov
es"ihent is now considering the purchase
Oh this variety.
4uite important. too Is the creation Of
nyprld lemon and lime, which will with
s''ud frost. Mr. Weber thinks there &c
~ w question but that hybrlds of all these
.uer citrus fruits, using the Japanese
""uy orange. will be secured.
:, IL is almost impossible that il can fail -
W.T. Weber said. 1T is not a matter Of
V"ahce. From the seedlings we now have
IT Is plainly evident thai We have MINGLED
t' blood of the two species and it is NOT
soSlole that some of these plants shall
,'' prove more hardy than the sweet or
"use. Suppose We find that we have Sc
o1iSd Tree that will withstand the frosts
VI Georgia, but which bear a fruit which
" oelween the worthless fruit of the fri
,oNate and the orange. Decidedly we have
rosressed We have not yet attained o,Ir
'l desire, but we have, made progress
iVl lnen we can hepiff NAL, g., 49,. =