The enterprise-recorder. (Madison, Fla.) 1908-1933, 1909-04-08

mon white opium poppy and another.
OIten am unable to account for nm
looked-for results Of my eyperlments
put IN this case the reason was IN he
found in the tendency OF the onipr,
poppy sometimes to produce red flow
ers; and, though the particular flow
er / used in this cross was white.
the hereditary strain was in its blood
ana cropped out IN the offspring.
"A desideratum in the improve
ment Of plants Is to secure new yarie.
ues that shall mature more quickly
tnan the original ones. Few peonle
note the fact that different individ-
ual plants of the same species often
nave different rates of growth. You
mink one blade Of blue grass in your
lawn grows just as fast as another.
while, as a matter Of fact. some pro-
duce their seed four or five times as
| quickly as others.
1t is the same way with trees
have been working for good while
to produce a quick bearing chestnut.
The ordinary chestnut of the woods
may take fifteen years from the seed
ing stage, but as rosul. of my ey-
perimenting I have a specimen tree
on my grounds this year, six months
old, that has borne two perfect burrs
and each has its regulation quota of
nuts. Now 7 can almost promise you
chestnuts while you wait.
Failures? Oh, yes. I have fail
ures. Here is a picture Of an i'm
proved prune plum. It excels the old
kinds in size and sweetness, but It is
a complete failure as a prune for the
reason that the skin, instead Of split
ting lightly in shallow lines in the
dip to which prunes are subjected
before dying, cracks wide open like
plum skin in canning.
Then there was my cross Of the
raspberry and strawberry. Theoret-
ically that cross ought to produce a
good new fruit. succeeded in get
ting between 900 and 500 vigorous
seedlings from the crossing, and they
thove well. The plants had the tri-
foliate leaves Of the strawberry pa
rent, but occasionally they would
send up canes-that was the rasp-
berry in them. BY and by they
bloomed, large, perfect flowers, that
gave every evidence of maturing
seeds, but not a solitary fruit set up
on the whole plantation. It was a
straightout failure. but somebody will
be able to establish that cross yet.
zone interesting feature in plant
experimentation is the occasional
cropping out of reversions to print
tive forms now lost through long Gull
tivation. This fact gives US hint
as to the original form of some
plants no longer found wild. I am
Just now running Indian corn"-in
his New England way Mr.. Burbank
calls It Injun corn-"back to where
it was maybe two or three thousand
years ago. Corn, as we know it to-
day, is an artificial product, the re-
suit of generations or centuries of
selection before the white man ever
saw it. have already secured forms
with the grains borne in the tassel
like other grasses, for corn is a
grass.
THE variation in the leaves Of
plants makes an absorbing study,
and I would like now and then to de-
velop something new in the foliage
line, for leaves can be made as beau-
tiful as flowers; but there is so much
to be done among the flowers that l
am leaving the leaves for the pres
emit"
Luther Burbsnks talk is singular
ly free from egotism. He is absorbed
in the love of his subject, and as he
touches lightly now on one featl.e
Of it, now on another he impresses
YOU with the feeling that his work,
far from being hard to do, is really
very easy. That, however, is the
of genius.-Philadelphia
Record.