394 Sfafe Ilortici'lfural Socictw 



EXAGGERATION— PLANT BREEDING. 



As a rule, it is bad policy to exaggerate. Things should be told ex- 

 £ictly as they are, and if there should be any variation from this it, should 

 be in the way of an under-estimate. There are, however, exceptions to 

 this good rule, as there are to all others. For example, if a certain in- 

 dividual had not gone to extremes on the plant breeding and pedigree, 

 the important subject of improving plants by selection would not have 

 received the attention it has during recent years. There is not only 

 "something" in it, but there is a great deal in it. We should endeavor 

 to set only the best plants grown from selected stock. One can go into 

 almost any orchard of Ben Davis apple or Elberta peach and pick out 

 trees that produce larger and better fruit and have better points generally 

 than other trees of the same variety all around them, which can only be 

 accounted for by bud variation. Such trees should be marked and prop- 

 agating wood or buds taken from them. There is one Bartlett pear tree 

 growing on my grounds that is about 40 years old, that has never shown 

 any blight, notwithstanding that it stands in a cultivated field. It bears 

 more regularly than other Bartlett trees, and the fruit is larger. Naturally 

 J go to this tree each year for buds. I also have a favorite tree of Secke! 

 that furnishes my propagating stock. A friend of mine at a distance of 

 several miles has a remarkable old tree of Anjou pear from which I took 

 buds last fall, and I hope to be able to get them from there in the future. 

 \A'e have an exceptionally fine row of Elberta peach grown from one 

 tree showing superior points, and from this row my supply of buds is 

 taken each year. I am constantly on the lookout for these superior speci- 

 mens of the different varieties of plants and trees from which to propa- 

 gate. Sometimes I hear of a neighbor or friend at a distance having a 

 tree of a particular variety that is unusually good. That tree is borne 

 in mind and visited with the view of perpetuating its good qualities. 

 Such work pays without question, and every, reader of our paper should 

 put forth their earnest efforts along the line of improving by selection. 

 It will accomplish wonders in years to come. — E. H. Riehl, Alton, 111., 

 Colman's Rural World. 



"THE BREEDING OF APPLE TREES. BY PROPER SELEC- 

 TION, ETC." 



This was the subject of a good paper presented by I. Henthorn of 

 Bentonville. He said much of the orchardist's troubles start with the 



