MICHIGAN STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 157 



what results from the amount of fruit on a tree ; while on 

 forty trees of this kind, put on large seedling stocks, the vari- 

 ation is marked and constant. That is, some trees give more 

 highly colored fruit than others, and do so from year to year 

 without regard to amount of crop, and the same variation is 

 found in size and quality. 



I have one Northern Spy on Rhode Island Greening, that 

 always gives me my largest specimens for the fairs, though of 

 a pale color. Two trees, close by, grown on Esopus Spitzen- 

 berg, always give fruit highly colored, but not so large. These 

 are only a few of the most noticeable examples that have 

 fallen under my observation, in which marked differences in 

 the fruit may be justly attributed, as I think, to the influence 

 exerted by the stock. 



The practical teachings of such facts as these are obvious. 

 They point unerringly to the propriety and advantage of 

 propagating a uniform class of stocks, to be grown from some 

 one of our most hardy varieties, and of quality that is unex- 

 ceptionable, upon which to work all our desirable kinds, and 

 from my own experience I doubt if we have anything supe- 

 rior, if equal to the Spy for this purpose. 



It may not be out of place to call attention to another agent 

 that acts an important part, often, if not always, in determin- 

 ing the quality of our fruits. It is conceded that the char- 

 acter of the seed in which resides the germ of the future tree, 

 is dependent mostly, if not wholly, upon those subtle aromal 

 influences that are instrumental in the fructification of the 

 blossoms. But few, however, have thought to attribute to this 

 cause any portion of difference observable in the size, color, 

 and flavor of different specimens of the same fruit grown on 

 the same tree, and under apparently the same conditions. 



The very existence of the fruit itself is dependent upon this 

 agent, and that which is able to determine existence, must be 

 all-powerful in shaping its character. I cannot doubt that 

 many of the variations met with in our fruits are to be attrib- 

 uted to this cause. 



