Arizona republican., 1904-04-12

thousand blackberry bushes several
times in several succeeding years. The
painstaking energy necessary in such
a search is merely suggested by such
figures. His Shasta daisy is a com
bination of the free-flowering Ameri-
can daisy with the European and Jap
anese species, and is the result of eight
years work in hybridization and sell
ection. The merit Of this flower which
gardening hobby. is it's hardness. 1t
grows and blooms wherever the oak
lives, it is perennial, and has a large
blossom of dazzling whiteness, borne
on a long stiff stem that makes the
flower very valuable for cutting. AS
each individual bloom may attain a
| diameter of over four inches, the eff
feet produced by thousands may be
more easily imagined than described.
| Nor does this complete the lists of
our wizards magic labors. He has
encouraged the gorgeous rose to do her
best In many varied forms and colors.
He has raised a giant amaryllls, which
has drawn travellers from abroad to
see it. some specimens being ten inches
and more across the flower. This
| flower alone is the result of nineteen
years selection. He made the first
double gladiolus He has introduced
hybrid clematis and a new form of
eolumbine, in which the spurs are en-
tirely eliminated. He has done away
with the disagreeable odor of the dah-
liza and has given 1t a subtle sweet
grow to giant height, and in his So
called hybrid pink has made pink
white, and red blossoms grow on the
same plant at once.
Mr.. Burbank having shown the way,
other men of science are ably second
ing his efforts. OF late years much
of the best experimental work on fruit
land vegetables has been done in
America by the bureau of plant in
dustry. in the department of agricul-
ture at Washington. The laboratory
of plant-breeding under the charge of
DR.. Herbert j. Weber has been re-
sponsible for many distinct novelties.
DR.. Weber collaborates with Mr..
Walter G. Swingle. Among their sue
cesses may be mentioned a new grape
fruit, or shaddock, a cross between
! the kidglove orange or tangerine with
the ordinary grapefruit Another sue
cess is a new orange which grows in
a northern climate, yet possesses a
palatable flavor. They have grown
pineapples and thornless leaves, a dis
tinct boon to the pineapple picker of
the future. They have also produced
a cherry tree upon which fifty or six-
ty cherries can be grown in a single
bunch. The seedless grape, obtained
from the muscat of Alexandria, is
their handiwork, and was the result
Of the selection year after year of cut
tings from those vines which produce
ed less than the normal number OF
seeds.
What men like Burbank and Web
Der will bring forth in the future one
hardly dares to prophesy. The posi-
bilities of selection and hybridization
are enormous. On e may, however,
venture far enough to hazard guess
that the seedless fruit and the thorn
less plant are certainties. On the
seedless apple the experimentahsts
are patiently at work. If, they say,
the banana and the pineapple are prac-
tically seedless, and have been so for
centuries, why should not the apple
be so? Indeed, since the Strand ar
ticle appeared a dispatch from Color
ado says that an experimenter in that
state has produced the seedless apple.
The navel orange offers a hint in the
same direction, and the pitless prune
and stoneless plum show what can be
done after excessive labor.