528 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



be known withont precise experiments for each case whether or not 

 they will be inherited. No fruitsrrower or nurseryman is war- 

 ranted in assuming that the qualities named can be handed down 

 — the chances are many to one that such yariations are due to 

 nurture and are not transmissible. 



For seyeral ^^ears the speaker has spent much time in studying 

 the histories of yarieties of fruits. In '' The Grapes of Now 

 York," he has had to do with about 1500 grapes; in " The Plums 

 of New York," 2000 sorts of plums; in ''The Apples of New 

 York," with about 700 kinds of apples. When this knowledge of 

 thousands of varieties is focused, one sees in fruits stability 

 and not variation. The generations of varieties of fruit do not 

 change. The Baldwin apple, Bartlctt pear, Concord grape, Mont- 

 morency cherry have not changed. In the Station fruit exliibit are 

 Greenings from a cion of the " original " Greening tree, 200 years 

 old when the cions were taken ; besides them are Greenings grown 

 from trees propagated from nursery stock. The characters of 

 the two lots of fruit are identical. If indiscriminate taking of 

 buds for propagation means changes, Ave should have innumerable 

 •types of Baldwins, Bartletts, Concords, j\Iontmorencies and these 

 two lots of Greenings ought not to look alike. 



There are, probably, more than one strain of some varieties of 

 fruits, as of the Baldwin for example. But these strains are few, 

 not more than two or three for any variety and but one in the great 

 majority of fruits. No one knows how strains have arisen — cer- 

 tainly not by premeditated selection. The fact of these occasional 

 strains does not alter the statement that the great majority of 

 the infinitude of variations in every orchard are not transmissible. 



The practical difficulties in growing trees from selected buds, 

 granting for the minute that improved stock may be so obtained, 

 are almost insuperable. The following are a few of them : 



1st. A bearing tree surpassingly good in one quality, may be 

 deficient in others. A tree bearing large apples might be unpro- 

 ductive, subject to fungi or insects, lacking in vigor or hardiness, 

 or short-lived. Selecting for one quality will not do. The more 

 qualities, the more difficult the tree to find and the more compli- 

 cated is selection. 



2nd. The selected buds must be worked, in the case of tree 

 fruits, on roots that are variable. To have " pedigreed " trees 

 it is necessary to have " pedigreed " roots as well as " pedigreed " 

 tops. 



