3o8 State Horticultural Society. 



vironment demands varieties that will mature fruit in liot autumns and 

 varieties that will keep the foHage perfect in seasons like the one just 

 passed. It may be that crossing alone will not give us all the good 

 apples we want. That inbreeding some of our best varieties will be 

 better. From the inventor's standpoint, have we not been rather a lazy 

 set, waiting for something to turn up in the way of new varieties better 

 adapted to our needs? The difit'erence between Burbank and the rest 

 of the world of fruit men has been that, instead of waiting for some- 

 thing to turn up. Burbank has been turning something up right along, 

 while the world now applauds his energetic efforts. 



DEFENSIVE ARMOR UNNECESSARY. 



It is time we recognize that plants in a state of nature often pro- 

 vide themselves with defensive armor in the shape of thorns, which are 

 not necesary under cultivation. There is no valid reason why we should 

 continue to cultivate gooseberries, raspberries and blackberries with 

 thorns. They can be dispensed with by a little attention to their breed- 

 ing. In fact, nature has already given us a hint by occasionally pro- 

 ducing a thornless plant. While visiting Luther Burbank at California 

 lats August, I was delighted to see his wonderful work with developing 

 the perfectly spineless cactus. This moans that in the desert lands of 

 the earth, where no irrigation is possible, we can still raise millions of 

 tons of fodder for cattle and succulent fruit for man. 



THE TEST OF PROPAGATION. 



The necessity of testing fruit seedlings under propagation has, in 

 many cases, been overlooked. How many hundreds of apple seedlings. 

 for example, have aroused great hopes of commercial value, as judged 

 from the behavior of the original seedling tree. But under propagation 

 they have failed from weakness of tree in nursery or unproductiveness 

 or tenderness of the tree in orchards, or other faults. Burbank fully 

 realizes this when he no longer saves the original seedling tree, but only 

 one or two scions for top-grafting into bearing trees. 



WORK WITH PEARS. 



In pears, how slow has been our progress ! The Kieffer pear is, 

 as you all know, an accidental hybrid of the Chinese sand pear, with 

 some European pear. This happened near Philadelphia. Since the 

 advent of this variety, which has extended the pear belt far south of the 

 former limits, how slow has been further progress. We know that high 

 quality has not been achieved in these hybrids — it was too big a job 



