WINTER MEETING. 15T 



Can We Breed a Hardy Peach? 



Z. T. Russell, Carthage, Mo. 



That man may and does have great influence over many of the 

 products of nature, changing them this way and that, within certain 

 limits, as he may desire, is a proposition that few will care to dispute. 

 As illustrating this may be mentioned domestic animals of all kinds, 

 and fruits and flowers of every kind and description. We are all 

 more or less familiar with the results that have been accomplished by 

 skillful, systematic work in the breeding of poultry and pet stock. 

 Old breeds have been greatly improved and entirely new ones pro- 

 duced. Their form, size, color and other qualities and characteristics 

 have been changed or modified almost at pleasure. The sense of smell 

 has been greatly developed in some varieties of the dog, giving us the 

 almost human pointers and setters of today, while in others, like the 

 greyhound, speed has been developed and the sense of smell left com- 

 paratively dormant. Again, see what has been done toward the im- 

 provement of our swine from the "hazel-splitter" of olden times to the 

 fine breeds of today. They have been developed in the direction of 

 early maturity and in their ability to take on fat, and at the same time 

 they have been bred to a uniformity in other respects, of form, color, 

 size, etc., that is perfectly wonderful. 



And what has been said of the foregoing is equally true of and 

 applicable to sheep and cattle, some breeds being highly developed in 

 a certain direction, as, for instance, the production of milk, while 

 others are as highly developed, but in an entirely different direction, 

 having, for instance, a tendency to lay on flesh. And all this has been 

 brought about mainly by the skill of man. 



Again, take the American trotter. See what a wonderful develop- 

 ment has been made of the ability to travel rapidly by the trotting 

 gait. And can it be that man can do all this and still be unable to 

 breed a hardier peach-tree than any we now have ? 



And the vegetable kingdom, too, as well as the animal, is, to a 

 very great extent, under the control of man. In fruits, vegetables and 

 flowers, what wonderful changes have been wrought, and what aston- 

 ishing developments made in the direction of the improvement of their 

 color, size, form, earliness, hardiness, beauty, quality, etc. Many in- 

 stances of these developments are familiar to you all. The rose, the 

 gladiolus, the strawberry, grape, and nearly all garden vegetables, are 

 familiar examples well known to all. But why go further into detail 



