454 



The Journal of Heredity 



bruised in shippinj;. On the other 

 hand, the fruit lacks in crispness. 

 juiciness, flavor and texture, required 

 to make it greatly prized either for 

 home or market use. A great draw- 

 back in northern latitudes to the Ben 

 Davis is that it is so late maturing that 

 proper coloring is not secured excc]3t in 

 exceptional cases. 



The good and bad i)()ints of many 

 other varieties might be mentioned, 

 but what has already been said will 

 serve to show the need of combining 

 the desirable qualities of different varie- 

 ties so that one variety may stand 

 preeminently in the lead. In this con- 

 nection, it should be mentioned that 

 varieties of apples display many dif- 

 ferent types. Some trees are hardier, 

 resist disease better, have better colored 

 fruit, are later blooming and produce 

 fruit of much better quality than do 

 other trees of the same variety under 

 the same cultural conditions. Thus in 

 our work, we have taken these factors 

 into consideration, with a hope that 

 these desired characters may be intensi- 

 fied to their maximum extent. 



For this improvement, the Ben Davis 

 variety has been taken as a basis, 

 using it as male and female. Crosses 

 have been made with other varieties 

 and from the resulting hybrids those 

 will be selected that give promise of 

 being adapted to conditions here. 



METHOD OF OPERATION 



The methods of securing cross pol- 

 linated fruits are much the same as 

 those followed by plant breeders in 

 general. The unopened blossoms are 

 emasculated and pollen from other 

 varieties a]jplied when the pistils are 

 receptive. Usually two emasculated 

 blossoms are left to the cluster. In the 

 fall the ])ollinated ai)])les are harvested 

 and kept in common storage until 

 Christmas. They are then brought to 

 the laboratory and the seed removed. 



The seeds from each cross are se])ar- 

 ated from the fruit, given a serial 

 number and tied in muslin bags. These 

 bags are ]jut in 2-inch pots, placed in 

 flats and buried where they are exjjosed 

 to freezing weather. As a i)recaution 

 against destructif)n by mice, the flats 



have always been co\'ered with screen 

 wire. Late in February the flats are 

 brought to the greenhouse and the seed 

 germinated. B>' subjecting the seed to 

 the above conditions, we have been able 

 to get approxiamtely 95% germination. 

 By the middle of May, the seedlings 

 arc from 10 to 12 inches in height; they 

 arc then transplanted to the nursery, 

 in rows 3 feet apart, trees 6 inches apart 

 in the row. The second season, the 

 seedling trees are transplanted to their 

 ]jermanent places in the orchard, 6 feet 

 apart each way. The results obtained 

 thus far are as follows : 



1910. During the spring of 1910, a 

 total of 1,175 crosses was made. The 

 seed taken from the fruit of these 

 crosses produced 146 seedling trees. 

 The parentage of these crosses follow: 



Cross Number 



Female Male of Trees 



Ben Davis x Jonathan 64 



Ben Davis x Spitzenberg 55 



Ben Davis x Ben Davis 2 



Ben Davis x Wagener 3 



Jonathan x Ben Davis l4 



Winesa]) x Ben Davis 1 



Jonathan x Jonathan 1 



Wagener x Ben Davis 4 



Delicious x Jonathan 2 



1911. A total of 3,000 crosses were 

 made in the spring of 1911. From the 

 seed of fruits crossed this year, a total 

 of 1,920 healthy seedlings trees were 

 secured. The crosses made and the 

 number of trees secin'cd from each 

 cross follow : 



Cross Number 



Female Male of Trees 



Jonathan x Ben Davis 916 



Wagener x Ben Davis 280 



Ben Davis x Jonathan 301 



Sj)itzenberg x Ben Davis 121 



Ben Davis x SjMtzenherg 62 



Jonathan x Jonathan 1 



Rome Beauty x Ben Davis 2 



Ben Davis x Wagener 6 



1912. Due to unfavorable climatic 

 conditions, only 1,703 crosses were 

 made. We were very successful in 

 germinating the seed taken from these 

 fruits and the results were that 3,065 

 seedling trees grew. The number of 

 trees from each cross is as follows: 



