8 TEANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Reports " for 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864: " I allude especially to^the fixed 

 law of the hereditary transmission of diseases and so-called consti- 

 tutional biases. While the strict observance of this law is regarded 

 as of the utmost importance in the rearing of animals, yet it is 

 either repudiated or almost entirely disregarded by a large proportion 

 of the propagators of trees and plants. Yet this law is universal in 

 its application and inflexible in its nature in the vegetable, as well as 

 in the animal, kingdom." 



J. L. Budd, on page 263 of the " Transactions of the Iowa 

 Horticultural Society," in 1878, says: "Thomas W. Field, one of the 

 most careful writers upon the pear, remarks: ' It is surprising that 

 so little attention has been paid to the perfection of the seeds which 

 form the germs of our pear trees. After abundant experience I am 

 satisfied that not half of the pear seed sown vegetates, and of those 

 that do, not more than one-fourth produces healthy stocks ; and 

 that of the hundreds of thousands of trees sold from the nurseries, 

 not one in five reaches its tenth year.' " 



If our trees are to be saved from slow, but sure, destruction, 

 those that are interested must keep the words ringing in the ears of 

 people, that obtaining seed from imperfect fruit to build our 

 orchards on will have its effect as certainly as conditions favoring 

 consumption is transmitted from sire to son. 



KEPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON ORCHARDS. 



BY F. I. MANIS", GILMAN. 



The problems which meet a breeder of live stock have received 

 considerable attention and the results have been of marked benefit. 

 The laws governing hereditary development have been studied, and 

 applied by man to reach artificial results. The success of a breeder 

 depends largely on his knowledge and the application of these laws in 

 the reproduction of animals. The breeder has given him the ovule 

 from which he is to develop the new individual. We may consider 

 this ovule as having fixed tendencies and characteristics, inherited 

 from the parent. The study of the breeder is to know what affects 

 the development of this ovule, and to understand the methods by 

 which it can be affected. Of course this is mostly through the 

 means of the other parent, or the sperm, which, like the ovule, has 

 its tendencies and characteristics fixed. It is, then, the influence of 

 the sperm upon the ovule that decides the characteristics of the new 

 individual, and which the breeder has to consider. I have assumed 

 that the sperm and the ovule have fixed tendencies. That is, the 

 tendency of animals to perpetuate their own individuals. If this 

 tendency was not a fixed one, scientific breeding could not exist; 

 results would be haphazard and guess work, and it is this element 

 that gives value to the family or breed for the stock grower. The 



