404 IIepokt of the Depaetment of Horticulture of the 



general considerations. 



Reversions. — A striking contradiction to the idea banded down 

 from a remote age that seedling apples " throw back " to the 

 wild prototype and are almost always worthless and degenerate 

 fruits, is brought out in these crosses. The belief in " reversion " 

 is so strongly ingrained in the minds of fruit growers that the 

 term " seedling " is usually one of condemnation. Reversion in 

 the sweeping way it was formerly used, is, in the light of present 

 knowledge, a very misleading term. Kothing is more apparent 

 in examining the fruit and trees under consideration than that 

 they have inherited the characters of their immediate parents. 

 This is so markedly true that in the great majority of the off- 

 spring, one acquainted with the parents of the several crosses 

 can from tree and fruit tell the two parents. Ben Davis and 

 Mcintosh, for example, show in all of the apples into which they 

 entered. Reversions to remote ancestors may occur, so we are 

 now taught, as the bringing together of complementary factors 

 which had become separated from one another. Such reversions 

 were not apparent in these trees. Contrary to " throwing back " 

 to wild apples, these crosses, in tree or fruit, were quite the 

 equal of any similar number of named varieties, a fact to which 

 many fruit growers can attest, who in the summer of 1911 saw 

 and admired the fruit and trees. 



Vigor increased by Injhridity. — The stimulus of hybridity 

 seems to be very marked in the vigor of these crosses. In spite 

 of over-crowding in the nursery row for two or three years these 

 trees are exceptionally strong in growth. In the same block are 

 a few selfed Hubbardstons which are much weaker in growth. 

 On another part of the farm are selfed Baldwins also averaging 

 much weaker. These may be but coincidences but the facts are 

 set down for what they are worth. A study of the descriptions 

 of the fruits and of the plates will show that in the majority of 

 the crosses the apples average larger than in either parent. The 

 trees, too, are remarkably productive, a fact brought out by the 

 weights of fruit given in the tabular descriptions. 



Table II contains data for the comparison of height of tree^ 

 diameter of trunk and quantity of fruit in 1912, from these 

 crosses and from four selfed Hubbardstons. The number of 



