APPLE BREEDING IN IDAHO 



Needs of State Lead Experiment Station to Undertake Production of New Varieties 



on Large Scale — Preliminary Report on Crosses Made — Burbank's 



Method of Selecting Seedlings ^ 



C. C. Vincent 



Agricultural Experiment Station, Moscow, Idaho 



BY the Adams Act, approved 

 March 6, 1906, funds were 

 made available for research 

 work along agricultural lines in 

 the state experiment stations. This 

 fund made it possible for a niunber of 

 stations to undertake plant breeding 

 projects. Horticulturists realized that 

 if there was to be progress in fruit 

 growing, new and better varieties must 

 be developed. The discovery in 1900 

 of Mendel's Law establishing some 

 elementary formulas of heredity had 

 given impetus to this work. Hence, 

 during the past ten years, rapid advances 

 have been made in many states; and 

 one of the fruits to which especial 

 attention has been devoted is the apple. 

 The need of such work is apparent. 

 Previous to this time, but very little 

 careful apple breeding work had been 

 done. In a recent bulletin from the 

 Geneva Experiment Station, Professor 

 U. P. Hedrick says: "Of the 698 

 varieties described in the apples of 

 New York, both male and female 

 parent are certainly known for only one 

 variety; one parent is known and the 

 other guessed, for two other kinds; 

 four are held to be sports from known 

 varieties; and the female, or seed 

 producing parent is given for thirty- 

 nine kinds. Of the 650 varieties, 

 seventy-one are said to be seedlings (of 

 unknown parentage) ; but for the great 

 majority of the kinds, nothing is 

 positively known as to the origin. 

 This poor showing for scientific, com- 

 mercial or careful amateur apple breed- 

 ing is due to several causes: Breeding 

 tree fruits of any kind is time-consinn- 

 ing and space-demanding ; the pecuniary 



rewards for individuals are inconsider- 

 able or altogether wanting ; institutions 

 organized to do plant breeding have 

 felt obliged to work in other fields where 

 results could be more quickly secured 

 and would mean more when obtained; 

 and lastly, plant breeding, especially 

 breeding of tree fruits, has until recently 

 seemed largely a matter of guess work 

 and chance — a process most of whose 

 fundamental laws were unknown." 



Of recent years, a number of stations, 

 especially New York (Geneva), Iowa, 

 Minnesota, South Dakota and Idaho, 

 have trees from hand-crossed flowers of 

 which both parents are known. The 

 work at the Idaho Experiment Station 

 has progressed along definite lines. 

 The object of the work has been the 

 improvement of existing varieties of 

 apples by breeding. 



NEW VARIETIES NEEDED 



The need of winter varieties of apples, 

 superior to existing types, has been 

 keenly felt by those interested in the 

 culture of this fruit. There are many 

 varieties already grown that have many 

 desirable characters, but no one of them 

 combines all of these good features. 



The Jonathan, for instance, has the 

 color and quality to make it a prized 

 dessert apple, but its keeping quality is 

 not the best and it is especially bothered 

 with storage scald and "water core." 

 It is also very susceptible to blight. 

 Likewise, the Ben Davis has its desirable 

 and undesirable features. It is a great 

 producer, the apples are good keepers, 

 the trees late in blooming, remarkably 

 thrifty and free from disease. The 

 fruit is thick-skinned and is not easily 



1 Read before the twelfth annual meeting of the American Genetic Association, August 5, 1915, 

 ..at Berkeley, Cal. 



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