CHAPTER IX 

 MFAIIODS OF WOHK IN SYSTEMATIC POMOLOGY 



Some consideration must be given to work in systematic 

 pomology and methods of doing it. The material for labora- 

 tory work differs so widely in separate fruit regions, the courses 

 in systematic pomologj^ and the time given to them vary so 

 greatly, that it seems unwise to offer directions for laboratory 

 study, but such there must be and much of it if student or 

 fruit-groAver are to learn the principles and facts of systematic 

 pomology sufficiently weU to make them useful. 



131. Materials for work in systematic pomology. — It is use- 

 less to attempt to study systematic pomology without living 

 plants and their fruits. These living specimens must be studied 

 in the scientific spirit ; that is, with reference to the relationships 

 of the different groups of fruits and to the structure of plant and 

 fruit, as distinguished from informal nature-study on the one 

 hand, or as to the value of the product for food on the other. 

 Too often systematic pomology is concerned only with a com- 

 modity, — the product to the neglect of the plant. Fruits are 

 often obtainable when the plants are not, but in this case the 

 study is incomplete, for material is adequate only when plant 

 and fruit are both at hand. 



Museum specimens to the exclusion of fresh material are 

 almost worthless, but a collection of wax models, if well made, 

 especially if well colored, can be used to advantage in laboratory 

 work in schools and colleges. Similarly, the descriptions and 

 colored plates in a series of books on the apple, peach, pear, 

 plum, cherry, and grape published by the New York Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, in which nearly all of those fruits 

 now grown in America are described and illustrated, furnish 

 valuable supplemental material. For the study of leaf, twig, and 

 flower characters, herbarium specimens are almost indispensable. 



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