Appendix. 249 



but mere reference, without calling your attention to some of the conclu- 

 sions of our most experienced pomologists. 



It has been demonstrated that no matter how rich in pollen a variety 

 may be, the vigor of growth and size of fruit is increased by cross-pollina- 

 tion, and again, the same law that governs the in-breeding of animals 

 follows the in-breeding of fruits, fertilized by their own pollen, resulting 

 in decreased size and weakness of growth. I pass to a second necessity of 

 pomology, namely methodical and persistent selection in the breeding of 

 our nursery trees. Taking the apple as a type, we find countless varie- 

 ties producing fruit of every conceivable size, color, taste, and season of 

 ripening. Many of the old varieties are disappearing and only those of 

 greatest merit have survived. Our Newtowns, Spitzenburgs, Bellflowers, 

 and Russets were yielding their precious harvests more than a hundred 

 years ago. What care have the children of this noble ancestry received as 

 they came down to us through successive generations? 



Has there been a careful selection of buds and cions from trees of 

 greatest vigor and well-known productiveness to be grown on stocks of 

 like health and vigor? We are all aware of the variableness of trees of 

 the same variety. I walk along my rows of Newtown Pippins, that king 

 of apples, and here and there I find a tree bearing undersized, colorless 

 acid fruit fit only for the vinegar vat. 



Experience has demonstrated that cions cut from such trees will also 

 bear inferior fruit and that parentage is just as important in the vegetable 

 as in the animal kingdom. What grower marks his trees that for suc- 

 cessive years have borne his choicest fruit that cions may be cut from 

 them alone? 



Who does not know that cuttings are taken indiscriminately from trees 

 bearing good, poor, and indifferent fruit and that this process has been 

 going on for generations? And what shall we say of our seedlings cr 

 stocks that are to grow these buds and cions for our future orchards? 



Did we select the seeds from the fruit of hardy, healthy trees, or did 

 we wash them out from the pomace that came from the cider press? And 

 pray what kind of fruit do we take to the cider mill? Do we not all 

 know that it is the colorless, undersized, unsalable fruit that goes there, 

 and yet we breed our trees on stocks grown from the seeds of this mis- 

 erable trash? If the owners of our flocks and herds paid as little attention 

 to parentage as we fruit men do, would they not have a mongrel lot? 1 

 believe in this manner: We have impaired the constitution of many of 

 our best varieties and to get best results must top-work them on trees of 

 greater vigor. 



At Newtown, on Long Island, the home of the original Newtown Pippin, 

 there is standing to this day a tree of that variety planted more than one 

 hundred and fifty j'^ears ago. I belisve that through careless breeding we 

 have shortened the longevity of our trees, our orchards are short-lived 

 and considered old when they have borne for twenty years. Can we re- 

 store the old-time strength and healthfulness of our trees, is a question of 

 no little concern to all pomologists. 



