SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 237 



S. D. Willard said we ^ere upon the eve of production of new fruits, adapted 

 to our several localities, such as we have never seen before. Prof. Budd of 

 the Iowa Agricultural College, is doing a great work with the apple and cherry 

 in this respect, bringing in Russian sorts aud introduciug them to our rigorous 

 regions, and crossing with these is very likely to produce kinds of remarkable 

 qualities of flavor and hardiness. Science is coming to our aid, and this help 

 horticulturists seem iuclined wisely to foster; but such experiments as Mr. 

 Engle's, conducted in many places, are of the highest value. 



C. E. Davison of Wayland suggested that size of pit has much to do with 

 merit. He got a seedling from George IV. peach which had pits only the size 

 of filberts and of high quality. 



Prof. Bailey spoke of these investigations as forming a series of true scien- 

 tific experiments. By breeding we have got the seeds all out of the banana 

 and many from pears and apples. The question is : Can we, from these few 

 seeded fruits, get a fruit entirely without cores and seeds! Possibly we may. 

 Soils have much to do with this. Ferry of Detroit claims to have originated a 

 new pea wholly from influence of soil in two years. We will ere long produce 

 peaches from seeds alone, without budding, and reproduce exactly the same 

 peach nearly or quite every time. There are races of Russian apples which 

 reproduce themselves from seed. 



Secretary Garfield told of a grower who kept up and even improved the Wil- 

 son strawberry by careful selection of strong new plants for resetting. 



President Lyon described a visit to B. Hathway's strawberry seedlings which 

 showed, thousands of them, close similarity to the parent plants. By selection 

 and careful breeding races of fruits will certainly be established, just as has 

 occurred with Hill's Chili peaches. Wisely select parents and work from them 

 to a single object. 



Geo. Taylor of Kalamazoo told of experience with production of turnip seed 

 in Scotland, and how they kept the sorts separate to prevent hybridization. At 

 times they carefully crossed them and obtained new kinds, some of them of 

 merit. He emphasized the need of care in this kind of breeding. 



Dr. Miles could see no reason why fruits superior to present sorts can not be 

 bred. The best stockbreeders have succeeded only by selection and use of ani- 

 mals of long-established pedigrees. Applying to fruits the well established rules 

 in breeding stock and grain, and there is no doubt that better fruits may be 

 obtained. Improvement is quite certain to follow even from grafting and good 

 culture. At one time by experiments with wheat, he succeeded in greatly increas- 

 ing the size of heads, grain from which much more uniformly produced large 

 heads than did grain from chance large heaps gathered from the general field. 

 Divergence from the chosen line of parentage, in such experiments, is always 

 disastrous. Follow out faithfully the chosen strain. Families of animals run 

 out can not reproduce themselves, because due attention to this point was not 

 given in selecting the progenitors. The work requires broad scientific know- 

 ledge of the laws of reproduction. 



Replying to a question, Prof. Bailey said that in crossing two parents, the 

 characteristics of the least variable one are most likely to prevail in the progeny, 

 whether that one be the male or female. 



Senator Monroe spoke of the danger arising from recommendations of new 

 kinds of fruit, maintaining that while deserved commendation should not be 



