WINTER MEETING. 203 



marketing: its insect enemies and diseases ; the fierce compf^tition of 

 rival districts; the overstocking of markets through lack of reliable 

 and prompt information that would prevent; the excessive cost of 

 rapid transportation ; the unreliability of middle men if we wish to 

 use so mild a term in describing the rake-off of the commission man ; all 

 these go to make np the elements of uncertainty that is incidental to 

 this business to a greater degree perhaps than is the case with growth 

 of any other important product of the soil. 



I will not assume a superior wisdom in saying that there is a scien- 

 tific and sure way of securing such varieties as we desire. It is well 

 known that varieties of the same species of fruits can be crossed by 

 hybridization just as certainly as the stock-breeder can produce the 

 desired type by judicious crossing of selected types of our domestic 

 animals. That by top-grafting on bearing trees these new varieties can 

 be brought into bearing and tbeir merits ascertained in three or four 

 years. 



The principle reason, no scientific persistent and extensive effort 

 is being made to produce superior varieties, is because it offers very 

 slight recompense to the originator, personally ; this is a work that 

 properly belongs to the government^ or State Experiment Station. 

 Where one seedling is brought into bearing in the old way, there should 

 be one hundred thousand carefully crossed seedlings brought into 

 bearing, and the most promising sent to different sections of the 

 country and tested. Under such a system does anyone doubt that in 

 a decade we could produce a thousand varieties equal to any we now 

 have, or that it would be reasonable to doubt that ten, twenty or fifty 

 of these scientifically produced varieties would be very much superior 

 for our purpose to any we now have ? 



In this connection there is another matter that shoufd also be 

 tested by the State and government on experimental farms, and that 

 is the influence of varieties on each other when united. I believe it is 

 generally admitted that there is an influence sometimes detrimental, 

 sometimes beneficial, which is exerted by the stock or root upon the 

 graft or variety placed upon it. Careful observation for the past 

 twenty-five years only the more firmly convinces me that in this field 

 of research there fcre greater beneficial possibilities to the horticulturist 

 than in any other one department. 



On the grounds of the Olden Fruit Co., the influence of the 

 Mahaleb root on the Early Richmond and English Morrello cherry has 

 been so strong it killed the trees, while those grafted on the common 

 Morrello stock proved hardy and productive. At Mr. S. W. Gilbert's 

 home in Thayer, in Oregon county, stand two magnificent specimens 



