Crop Improvement by Utilizing Wild Species. 121 



THE PRAIRIE APPLE. 



It is unfortunate that the two species of wild apples found in the 

 United States should so generally be called "crab apples." They are in 

 fact, native wild apples, and there is little doubt that had the common 

 apple of the Old World (Malus malus) not grown well in New England, 

 Pennsylvania and Virginia when attempts were first made to trans- 

 plant it to our soil between two and three hundred years ago, the wild 

 species would have been brought into cultivation. Had that taken 

 place, we should doubtless have been eating luscious native apples iu 

 this country for many years, as we have been eating native grape?. 

 Many years ago I urged the horticulturists of Iowa to turn to the 

 western wild apples (Malus ioensis) as a promising species to be im- 

 proved and brought under cultivation. A few years ago I wrote in the 

 same strain to the Nebraska horticulturists (Annual Report Nebraska 

 State Horticultural Society, 1894, page 9). I wish here to urge upon 

 you the desirability of taking up this promising native species, and of 

 giving it that treatment which will quite certainly evolve from it a new 

 apple. That this will be done in the course of time I have no doubt at 

 all, the only question is how soon will our breeders take it up. 



DWARF WILD CHERRY (Prunus demissa). 



This is an upright shrub or less commonly a small tree, having 

 thickish, blunt-serrate leaves, and large, black-purple, edible fruits. 

 In shape, the cherries are flattish with a thickish flesh, and are from 

 one-third to one-half an inch in diameter. When unripe they are quite 

 astringent, and this is probably what has given them the unfortunate 

 name of Choke Cherry, but when ripe they are excellent eating in the 

 fresh state, and when made into pastries I can vouch for their excel- 

 lence by practical experience. The cherries are clustered in racemes, 

 as in the Wild Black Cherry, to which indeed this Dwarf Cherry i? 

 closely related. Many years ago I called attention to this as worthy 

 of introduction for its promising fruit, and I cannot refrain from urg- 

 ing upon the plant breeders in this meeting the desirability of taking 

 it up for development. 



NEBRASKA SAND CHERRY (Prunus besseyi). 



This low shrub which resembles the Sand Cherry (Prunus pumila') 



lof the eastern United States, and which for many years was supposed 



^to belong to that species, has attracted the attention of many growers 



for the past decade or more. As it occurs on the Sand Hills of Central 



