PLANT BREEDING IN ITS RELATION TO AMERICAN 



POMOLOGY. 



W. M. MUNSON. 



The whole question of plant and animal breeding is in a state 

 of transition, for, with a sudden interest in Mendel's work, and 

 the generalizations of DeVries and others, investigations in 

 breeding are taking a new direction, not necessarily less prac- 

 tical in final results, but at present less comprehensible to the 

 average man. It has therefore seemed worth while to give a 

 brief statement of methods heretofore employed in plant breed- 

 ing, in their relation to the development of American fruits, and 

 a summary of the results already accomplished. 



The breeding of plants, as of animals, is quite as much a 

 question of culture, care and selection, as it is the production 

 of a departure from a given type. Most plants live an indif- 

 ferent existence, dependent very closely upon immediate con- 

 ditions of environment. Furthermore, every part of a plant 

 lives largely for itself and is capable of propagating and multi- 

 plying itself if removed from the parent plant. This fact 

 increases the importance of suitable environment, and of a 

 knowledge of methods of propagation on the part of one who is 

 to undertake systematic breeding. In the study of plant breed- 

 ing then, for all practical purposes, the unit is the embryo indi- 

 vidual plant, whether in the form of a seed or a bud. While in 

 the light of recent investigations this statement may be regarded 

 as somewhat antiquated, the writer would still maintain the 

 position that in the prosecution of the practical improvement 

 of the American fruits, this proposition will hold. Of course 

 in the scientific investigation of the principles of plant breeding, 

 embryological conditions are of importance. 



In recent times the student of plant breeding thinks that he 

 has a key to the laws of plant variation in the so-called "Men- 

 del's Law," and there are many facts which tend to strengthen 



