134 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



only get the impress of one parent; but since no two are ever alilce, I 

 do not see whv vou can not varv them, and yet, wlien vou aslc for 

 definite proof, a distinct illustration of the point, something in which 

 the variation is so very great, why, we simply do not have it. It does 

 not occur all at once. The small variations we must learn to detect. 



Prof. Tracy: I just want to remark that in 1896 and 1897, each 

 year, we examined 200 tomato plants. We first picked out the rough 

 fruit, the unsalable fruit; then we picked all the fruits from the plants, 

 putting those what came from each branch by themselves, and then 

 made an estimate, figured the percentages to determine if a majority of 

 the rough fruits came from rough branches. It was, if I remember 

 rightly, in 189G that we had this fruit planted. It was 87 per cent, 

 rough, and I think three fourths or over came from one branch. This 

 year it was over 90 per cent, in the t^ o hundred j)lants we examined. 

 I think the only way to get at thosi' things is to have a number of 

 individuals making observations. \Ve have saved this year the seed of 

 the rough fruit and the seed of the smooth fruit so as to intensify the 

 thing, if we can. You get a great deal of variation of these seeds be- 

 cause they have two parents and the true variation is the bud of an 

 individual. 



Prof. Waite: The right place to study bud variation is on plants 

 produced asexually, but the difificulty even there is to separate the varia- 

 tion due to environment, nutrition and other causes from inherent varia- 

 tion, which we mean by bud variation. 



Prof. Waite: Because a plant was in a high state of nutrition and 

 was in good condition to propagate from, might not prove bud variation. 



Mr. Kellogg: But it would prove this, that it pays to give high 

 culture and take those that are in the best environment and best con- 

 dition to meet your future requirements. 



Prof. Waite: The point I wish to raise is just this: It is an open 

 discussion between seed-breeders, which of these two cases will give 

 you the most desirable seed: You have one field in which you have a 

 local condition which tends to throw out and develop all the tendency 

 toward sport which is dormant in the variety, particularly in the case 

 of peas; you have another field where the conditions are favorable to 

 grow that pea to just the type you desire. In the case of the first field, 

 you can go through and pull out all the plants which show the oft" 

 tendenc}'; in the second place, the i)lants which ma}- show the off 

 tendency are left, because conditions do not favor the development of 

 the tendency. Now, which of those two lots of seed is the most desir- 

 able for breeding-stock? .1 have found my own experience immeasur- 

 ably in favor of the second class, that is, a lot of seed grown on favorable 

 soil and from wliich we have not pulled out so many sports, and where 

 all the plants develop properly. That class will be more true in its repro- 

 duction than the same seed grown on unfavorable soil, and which has 

 tended to develop all the sports and from which all the sports are sup- 

 posed to have been thrown out. That is in favor of the position that the 

 influence of environment would tend to give better results. 



