206 THE MONTH I. Y BULLETIN. 



quality of the fruit this individual tree produces. It is then the work 

 of this important branch of horticulture and of those men who are 

 working out these practices to eliminate all of the so-called drones. A 

 tree which doesn't produce properly is called a "drone." That tree is 

 not grubbed out but it is used as a stock on which to bud or graft from 

 another tree which has made a record of profitable bearing, and it has 

 been surprising to find out how many drones there are on every acre 

 of orchard. You may all realize how much would be the added profit 

 or yield per acre if every tree in the acre, of the 60 or 70 or 100 per 

 acre, were a profitable investment ; and every one of you, if you should 

 take note during the coming season and keep a record and note every 

 tree, mark every tree as to its productiveness, would be surprised how 

 many individual trees do not pay. We want to remember that every 

 tree is an individual, just as every bud is an individual and the 

 peculiarities and characteristics of those individuals may be propagated 

 through the individual bud. 



"We may propagate fruit trees with a tendency to the production of 

 wood just as easily as we can propagate trees for the production of the 

 best quality of fruit. That was shown you in the remarks of Mr. Wisker, 

 who told you that bud variation might just as easily tend to reversion 

 as to improvement. It has been and is the practice, of course naturally. 

 in propagating, or it follows rather as a natural sequence in gathering 

 buds or grafts for nursery purposes, that a man going into the orchard 

 to get the buds or grafts, naturally and with very good intent takes 

 them from the most vigorous trees. That at first would seem to be 

 good practice, but when you stop to consider, if that is done continu- 

 ously year after year and generation after generation, if we cut all the 

 buds from the trees which show the most wood vigor, what are we doing? 

 Naturally and obviously, we are propagating and breeding towards wood 

 production rather than fruit. That is an absolute law just as much in 

 the vegetable kingdom as in the animal kingdom. In the same way. 

 if we should bud from a certain tree or trees and only from those that 

 are making and have made always a record for production of good 

 fruit, we are breeding to fruit rather than to wood. I can mention the 

 names of two practical growers of very many years' standing and 

 experience — I don't know whether either of them has been in attendance 

 at this convention or not — who have done this with cherries. One is 

 Mr. Rolla Butcher of Sunnyvale and the other is Mr. Ridley of the 

 Willows, San Jose. Both of them are of large experience and both are 

 interested in the Royal Ann more than anything else, and they have 

 both told me that the cherry trees they buy don't do well. They fail 

 to produce or they are so long in coming into bearing. They have both 

 come to the same conclusion. They have trees of their own which they 

 had many years ago, some imported from France, some from the 

 nurseries, and those trees where they propagated from an individual 

 specimen which is known as a large and regular bearer, which both of 

 them have done, come into bearing early and bear regularly, and they 

 have come to the conclusion and both have told me in different ways 

 and at different times that they believed that was the reason — uncon- 

 sciously we have been gradually breeding to wood rather than to fruit. 

 That, of course, as I say, is a law in horticulture and it is something 



