I904-I905-] Work in a Canadian Orchard. 189 



cross-fertilisation and hybridisation ; and third, by bud varia- 

 tion. Doubtless the accidental growth of seedlings is account- 

 able for many of the varieties. Emigrants brought apple seeds 

 with them from our own land, which the Canadian usually 

 lovingly refers to as the old country, and these occasionally 

 produced trees which bore in time fruit of merit. Other 

 seeds grew up in fence corners. From seeds of apples grown 

 in Canada, and from these spontaneous growths, have come 

 some of the finest fruits, such as ISTorthern Spy and Baldwin. 

 When scientists took the matter in hand and endeavoured to 

 produce varieties, their efforts were only partially crowned 

 with success. One great apple-seed grower publishes the 

 results of his efforts over a period of thirty years. He began 

 by planting one bushel of apple seeds, and during each suc- 

 cessive year, for eleven years, he planted enough apple seeds 

 to produce 1000 trees, gaining as a net result of all this 

 effort only two varieties worthy of note. One of these is the 

 famous apple called " Wealthy," which is thought at present 

 to be the best early apple the country produces. Since the 

 end of that first eleven years of the thirty years' period, how- 

 ever, as many as forty first-class varieties have been pro- 

 duced by the same experimenter. Much devotion is required 

 to produce such a result. In fact, it has been calculated 

 that on an average it takes from 300 to 500 seedlings to 

 give one new first-class variety of apple. 



There are usually five or six buds in a cluster on apple- 

 trees, but generally only the strongest of these sets fruit, and 

 it occasionally happens that an apple is produced quite differ- 

 ent from all the others. This is called a " bud variety," and 

 the skilful grower looks out for these, and propagates either 

 by bud- or branch-grafting. In grafting, a cutting of the 

 variety desired is taken and united by wax and tying to the 

 tree on which it is desired to grow the fruit. The branch so 

 united does not thereby lose its individual characteristics, 

 except to the extent that it may be modified by the vigour of 

 the tree on which it is grafted. If a variety is grafted on to 

 a dwarf or slower growing tree than itself, the result is that 

 the stock tends to reduce its vigour, as the amount of sap 

 natural to it is reduced ; and as a lessening of vigour tends 

 to the development of fruit, this kind of stock is often used. 



