WINTER MEETING. 131 



want to bare experimented upon. Failure in the result may just as 

 surely help to establish the law as a success, just so we know the 

 grouud on which we stand to deduce these results. It does seem to 

 me that we can take the best established families of varieties of our 

 fruits and cross them with certain other families of varieties, and cer- 

 tainly after a time succeed in establishing a line that we can depend 

 upon. For instance, take the Spitzenberg family of apples or the. 

 Romanite family or the Rimbo family or the Bellflower, or, later, the 

 newer families like the Ben Davis family, of which we now have a 

 number of varieties, and cross them with each other in distinct families 

 of varieties, or different varieties of the same families, like the York 

 on the Minkler, or the Ben Davis on the Gano, or the Spitzenberg 

 family, like the Jonathan, upon the Newtown Pippin family, like the 

 White Pippin, or, for instance, a cross of the Janet family, the Ingram, 

 upon the Lady Sweet or the Bailey Sweet, or, in fact, a hundred other 

 distinct crosses we might name. 



Take for instance the Smock family of peaches and cross with the 

 Old Mixon family in a hundred different ways. From the hardy variety 

 resulting, cross another and another until we establish a hardy race of 

 peaches. Coming down to the other fruits, the like can be attempted 

 and some results be obtained much more quickly. 



Let us see if we have nothing in this line that can be seen in the 

 -chance seedlings and the newer varieties that come to us every year. 

 You have often heard that such a berry has Sharpless blood in it ; such 

 a raspberry has the old Doolittle flavor ; such a cherry has some of the 

 old Early Richmond color and size in it; such a pear has the musk of 

 the Bartlett ; such a peach is surely the Old Mixon improved or the 

 Smock a little sweetened ; such an apple resembles the I^ewtown Pippin 

 or the Nonsuch or the Winesap — so much so that we can distinctly 

 trace the resemblance. Such a grape has some of the Concord, or 

 Delaware or Catawba blood in it, or another has the foxiness or the 

 muskiness of another, and so on. 



Now I submit to you in all candor, if such thing can become so 

 distinct a characteristic that we can recognize it in chance seedlings, 

 why can we not reproduce these characteristics much more distinct 

 and perfect by using such crosses with intelligent judgment. The 

 breeder of corn in a few years can get his ideal, by selection often, but 

 more surely by good crosses. The breeder of wheat can in a series of 

 years get what he wants in his seed, stalk, growth, time of ripening, 

 hardiness, and in fact every end he wishes to accomplish. Is there any 

 reason, let me ask, why the fruit-grower should be the only one who 



