The Scieniific Production of New Fruits. 241 



results encouraging the propagation of improved kinds. I have no knowl- 

 edge of instances proving the budding or grafting of older trees a success. 

 The grafting of stocks of young trees offers no difFculties, but otiers no advan- 

 tages; the seedling being of a more rapid growth, and not remaining constant 

 in its character, bears its fruit as soon, if not sooner, than the graft. Mr. Dele- 

 hamps, a fruit-grower of Mobile county, informs me that, nine years ago, he 

 grafted scions of the pecan tree upon some young stalks of the Mockernut 

 hickory, Carya tomentosa, some at the collar, others two to three feet above 

 the ground ; several of these trees are now twenty feet high, blossomed last 

 year, and are expected to bear fruit this coming season. 



THE SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION OF NEW FRUITS. 



BY DR. J. STAYMAN, OF KANSAS. 



As this Society is composed of persons living over a very wide range of 

 country and a diversified climate, it would appear that the subject of this pa- 

 per should be the production of fruits adapted to general cultivation, or at 

 least to cover the districts represented. 



If this is the case, we fear some of you will be very much disappointed, for 

 there are very few, if any, such fruits, as they are not within the ability of 

 man or the effort of nature to produce. Therefore, all we expect to do is to 

 give what we believe to be the best methods to approximate these results. 



There is not, and can not be, a iiniversal variety, any more than there can 

 be a universal panacea. It is not nature's method — she produces variety. 



We have the hills and dales, the groves and the prairies, the cold North, 

 the temperate East, and the mild and balmy South, the deserts of the West, 

 the Italy of the Pacific, with the blizzards of the Northwest and the siroccos 

 of the Southwest. She has furnished us with many species and numerous 

 varieties of fruits growing wild over these districts: it is our province to cul- 

 tivate, improve and make use of them. There are some varieties of these 

 wild species that will not succeed, where others of the same species do. In 

 fact the same species will not always succeed within its own geographical 

 boundary. Some species and varieties have a very limited range, while 

 others have not. But every plant, vegetable and fruit must have a certain 

 amount of heat, light and moisture to fully develop and bring it to perfec- 

 tion, and if restrained in these requisitions it will become debilitated and dis- 

 eased or of deficient quality. And if it were not for the vicissitudes of climate, 

 every plant would succeed wherever these conditions were found; but as it is, 

 the}' will succeed in different locations. 



The production of new fruits is no difhcult problem, as all of you under- 

 stand it; neither is it difficult to produce those of excellent quality, as that 



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