43 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



selection, and observance of pedigree in the selection of seed for further 

 experiment, we may reasonably hope for an apple that, for our state, -will 

 fill all the requirements of hardiness, productiveness and quality. 



The pressing need of horticulture in Michigan, though not as pressing as 

 in the states further west, is for new, hardy, valuable indigenous varieties of 

 fruit, of the apple especially, as this is the great staple. 



While the labor of producing and testing the new and needed fruits would 

 seem to belong to a well equipped and organized experimental station, the 

 work can be and should be supplemented, if not inaugurated, by the enter- 

 prising horticulturists of Michigan. 



B. Hathaway. 



MR. HATHAWAY' S STRAWBERRIES. 



Prest. Lyon: The fact is that Mr. Hathaway, who is living almost entire- 

 ly beyond the influence of Lake Michigan, has hiuiself given much study to 

 this question of originating hardy and improved varieties, and especially as to 

 the strawberry. He took a certain strain of the native stock (the Virginia 

 Scarlet) and persistently worked at it, securing one thousand or more seed- 

 lings, and from these selected his Pistillate Scarlet. He has many seedlings 

 from this, all of them bearing a strong family resemblance, and they are as 

 vigorous and fruitful plants as I ever saw. Such a course with other fruits 

 is what he recommends. Peter M. Gideon of Minnesota did the same with 

 the crab apple and got many seedlings desirable for that region, all bearing 

 the distinctive crab appearance. The efforts of Prof. Budd of the Iowa 

 Agricultural College with Russian pears and apples are upon the same line in 

 some degree. All these experiments, in their results, go to show the practica- 

 bility of generating families of fruits as well as of animals. 



CARELESS USE OF TERMS. 



Prof. Beal: Such experiments, if carelessly conducted, will be disappoint- 

 ing, but if pursued with care and intelligence in selection and crossing, the 

 result is sure to be good. There is much carelessness in use of scientific 

 terms among breeders, both of animals and plants. In science a term means 

 one thing, exactly that and nothing else. Hybrids are crosses between species, 

 and the term "families" should be ''races," for families of plants cannot 

 be hybridized. Work of this kind is very fascinating. The hybrids may be 

 fertile and may not. If they are we may use, in further crossing, the pollen 

 of either parent, or may take it from some other good ^Decimen of the same 

 kind, and by continuous work in this way finally get that which will come 

 "true to seed." Mr. Beal rehearsed the history of the Drummond phlox, 

 which was originally a Texas wild flower, cross-fertilization and selection hav- 

 ing produced the variation of color and size. The same process may undoubt- 

 edly be carried out with the apple and a race established with such fixed 

 character as to come true from seed. 



AS TO PISTILLATE HYBRIDS. 



Mr. Lyon was asked if it was true, as said by some, that recourse constantly 

 to pistillate sorts, in hybridizing, tends to establish a pistillate hybrid. He 



