SOCIETY OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 275 



blood of thebud orscion. Whether there is any influence extending 

 from root to branch, fruit or leaf, as to their form, is not a 

 matter of importance in this connection. From the fact that old 

 buds or scions put on roots of stronger vitality make stronger 

 trees; that these roots are modified in their habits of growth, and 

 that old buds worked on new blood prove strengthened, would 

 indicate that there was an influence, so far as vitality was con- 

 cerned. The top-working of old varieties that are in their 

 decline, upon some of the newer sorts, is followed by increase in 

 vigor and growth. If the old were worked upon old sorts, the 

 change would probably be but little, if any. 



Now, if you will grant for the present that vitality is the essence 

 of life, that it is the property only of the individual, and comes 

 into existence and goes out with the individual, we will make the 

 application to apples. Our commonly called varieties of apples 

 are not varieties at all, strictly speaking. We could make any 

 arbitrary division we choose for variety, such as red apples, striped 

 apples, large apples, etc., and ascribe our different sorts into such 

 and such a variety. If we had red apples that would reproduce 

 only red apples from its seed, we could say of the different indi- 

 viduals or kinds, that they belong to the varieties of red apples. 

 But we have no such divisions that separate our different so-called 

 varieties. Our red apples have but little tendency, if any, to re- 

 produce red apples from seed; nor have any of our so-called va- 

 rieties much of any tendency to reproduce any of their character- 

 istics with certainty. A feen Davis is no more apt to produce an- 

 other Ben Davis, than is a Willow Twig; is no more apt to pro- 

 duce a tree in appearance like a Beji Davis than like a Tallman 

 Sweet. In fact, we can make no specific prescription from which 

 the seed might not vary. 



The sorts of apples, then, are not varieties, and we must con- 

 sider them only as individuals, capable of being multiplied by di- 

 vision, and each division having the identical characteristics of the 

 original, and partaking also of its vitality, modified as above con- 

 sidered. We should, then, expect our individuals, or so-called 

 varieties, to be subject to the same laws of maturity and decline, 

 as all other individuals. If the normal life of an apple tree is 

 forty or fifty years, we should expect those varieties or indi- 

 viduals produced thirty years ago, to be reaching a ripe old age, 

 and in a condition not to withstand successfully the trials that 

 younger blood could meet. 



Where are the varieties of fifty years ago? Gone. Where 

 are varieties of twenty-five years ago ? Going. Much of our hope 

 for the future should rest in the production of new individuals 

 having qualities we want, and that they be thoroughly tested as 

 soon as is possible, and disseminated, that the orchards may re- 

 ceive as much of the lifetime of each individual as may be possi- 



