32 Director's Report of the 



purposes varieties of apples do not degenerate and neither do they 

 change for the better. 



Fourth, Natural resistance to disease in apples. — It means much 

 in selecting varieties to know which are immune or susceptible to 

 uncontrollable diseases as fire blight or peach yellows. This subject, 

 too, it is obvious, is a most important one to plant breeders. The 

 two diseases of apples discussed in this connection are apple scab 

 and apple blight. 



Fifth, Seedless apples. — Seedlessness is a valuable character in 

 many fruits. It may become so in the apple. A consideration of 

 this fact is followed by a list of growers of different varieties of 

 seedless apples reported in the United States during the past twenty 

 years. 



New or noteworthy fruits. — Bulletin No. 364 contains a description 

 of a number of new or noteworthy fruits. Without new varieties 

 fruit-growing would be at a standstill. Old varieties are seldom 

 improved and are changed only when nature has occasionally sub- 

 stituted one character for another as when russet takes the place 

 of red in the Baldwin or of yellow in the Bartlett. All this means 

 then that new varieties are milestones in the march of progress and 

 that fruit-growers to keep up in the march must become familiar 

 with the milestones. In this bulletin, too, are described the best 

 recent introductions of varieties of tree, bush and vine fruits as they 

 grow on the grounds of this Station. 



For one reason or another varieties are often lost. Some of these 

 all but lost varieties when resurrected and given a second period 

 of probation prove most worthy. Again, the defectives and un- 

 manageables of a generation ago may, under improved methods, 

 prove tractable and profitable. These are the " noteworthies " of 

 the title — old sorts never tried or not well tried, or one-time " un- 

 manageables " which after a more careful test or with a better 

 show deserve the attention of fruit-growers. The following fruits 

 are described in this bulletin: — Apples: Deacon Jones, Delicious, 

 Opalescent. Pears: Lucy Duke. Peaches: Arp Beauty, Frances, 

 Miss Lola. Plums: Imperial Epineuse, Middleburg, Pearl, Tennant. 

 Cherry: Schmidt. Grapes: Berckmans ; Delago, Eclipse, Secretary. 

 Raspberries: June, Plum Farmer. Currants: Perfection, Diploma. 

 Gooseberry: Poorman. Strawberries: Prolific, Chesapeake. 



