b TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



Most assuredly not, but the very reverse of all this — in fact 

 with all these carefully culled out, and thus the seed of the very 

 poorest of the fruit of one generation selected for stocks for the 

 next! 



How often has this been repeated in the last thirty years? And 

 have not our fruit trees by this process gradually become enfeebled 

 in proportion to the number of times this has been repeated? 



Is this an " art that doth mend nature? " Js this the V survival 

 of the fittest? " Or rather are not our fittest fruits likely to become 

 extinct under this oft repeated process? 



What would be said of the farmer who would sift out all his 

 best wheat and sell it, and then sow only the screenings? Ox select 

 all his corn and sell it, and then sow only the refuse? 



What would be said of the stock breeder who would sell all his 

 choice animals and breed only from the unsaleable? 



How long would it take such stock or such grain to " run 

 out?" Are we any more likely to raise vigorous, thrifty, long-lived 

 trees from this refuse seed than such a farmer would be to improve 

 the quality of his grain or stock? 



These thoughts and queries have been suggested lately by bitter 

 experience with an orchard of 1,200 trees that have shown such an 

 unaccountable difference in vitality that I am forced to believe that 

 this weakening process has been carried so far now that the average 

 seedling stocks used are not nearly so hardy as our standard varieties 

 were originally. But that there are seedlings very much hardier 

 than even our standard varieties is conclusively proven by the manj'" 

 old veterans scattered all over the country that have lived, thrived, 

 and continue to bear fruit without any special culture, exposed to 

 the same causes that have destroyed one generation after another of 

 our commonly grown nurser}'^ trees. Who is to blame, and what is 

 the remedy? 



Doubtless it is the nurseryman first for producing trees from 

 such trash; but much more the tree-planter, who too often only en- 

 quires where he can buy cheapest. 



The remedy is obvious. Tree-planters must be willing to pay a 

 fair price for stock that is vorth planting — set their dogs on all 

 tree-peddlers — and purchase only of nurserymen who will use the 

 seed of none but perfectly sound fruit, grown on healthy trees, of 

 proved hardiness — in other words, those nurserymen only who will 

 use the same diligence that men do in other avocations of life, who 

 succeed in making an improvement in each succeeding generation. 



J. V. Cotta read a report on the same subject. 



