442 
makes a good deterrent. Seedlings in 
flats are potted off after the first two 
or three true leaves appear and are then 
transplanted to the nursery row when 
danger of frost is over. 
ELIMINATION OF UNDESIRABLES 
“Since fruit trees are grown primarily 
for their fruit, it would be highly 
desirable from an economical standpoint 
to eliminate undesirable seedlings at an 
early age. After considerable corre- 
spondence with plant breeders, the 
writer reached the conclusion that, in 
the present state of our knowledge of 
the subject, no satisfactory basis of 
elimination has yet been worked out. 
In view of the importance of determining 
whether there are correlated characters 
which can be used for that purpose, it 
seems desirable to grow all seedlings up 
to the fruiting age in order that tree and 
fruit characters may be compared. 
The prevailing opinion seems to be that 
the best results are obtained from 
seedlings showing a close resemblance to 
the smooth appearance of our improved 
forms. In regard to this point, Joe A. 
Burton, who is in charge of the apple 
breeding work of the Indiana State 
Horticultural Society, states that he 
inquired of a prominent plant breeder 
if anything could be done in selection. 
Mr. Burton writes: 
The following is his reply: ‘Prominent 
buds, large, smooth, regular, glossy leaves, 
large leaf stems, short distances between 
buds and a compact sturdy look, are the 
best indications of a good apple among 
seedlings.” I was greatly pleased with 
this information because it coincided with 
what I and my friends already believed. 
So on one occasion when the Horticultural 
Board of the State, all experienced horti- 
culturists, visited the Experimental Or- 
chard, Il asked themto select each a tree that 
he thought most promising. One tree all 
agreed would surely be grand. As they 
came into bearing nearly every tree was a 
sweet variety, and the special tree a very 
The Journal of Heredity 
small worthless variety. Not a selected 
tree was of any worth. I had refrained 
from cutting out trees that I was sure were 
worthless, because I had had no experience. 
It was weli that I did. We did not know 
how to select. . Consider a few 
well-known varieties. Grimes and Rambo 
are thorny. Rambo is especially un- 
promising in bud appearance. Benoni, 
the king of summer varieties, is very 
unpromising both in tree and_ bud. 
Jonathan grows so straggling that nursery- 
men don’t like to grow it. 
“At best it is a long time to wait for 
seedling trees to come into bearing. 
Various expedients have been tried to 
shorten this period. A number of 
seedlings were top-worked on dwarf 
trees but the results were not encour- 
aging The top-working entailed a 
good deal of labor, and where several 
kinds were placed on the same tree it 
was almost impossible to keep track of 
them. Besides this many of the seed- 
lings fruited almost as early on their own 
roots. 
“Girdling was another method tried. 
The first plan used was to remove a ring 
of bark but some of the wounds did not 
heal readily and later it was found more 
satisfactory to check the flow of sap by 
wrapping the branch with a strand of 
fine wire. When this was done on 
trees 5 or 6 years old about the last of 
June very good results were secured. 
One drawback to girdling is the produc- 
tion of numerous water sprouts just 
below the point girdled. These water 
sprouts are very susceptible to the fire 
blight. Summer pruning helps some- 
what in controlling them, but it must 
be done with care or it will only serve 
to spread the blight around. Fre- 
quently the first blossoms appear on the 
terminal shoots so it seems desirable not 
to prune these back severely. Even 
with these expedients, however, one 
can hardly expect any very great results 
in breeding work with pears and apples 
in less than ten or twelve years.”’ 
Tobacco That Will Burn 
“‘Fire-holding capacity’”’ is the basis 
for breeding tobacco in Germany, as 
described by D. Hoffmann in Fuhling’s 
Landwirthschaftliche Zeitung (64, pp. 
366-371). The duration of glow of 
150 unfermented leaves was found to 
range from 10 seconds to the complete 
incineration of the leaf. The capacity 
for holding fire appears to be an inherited 
character, but there are some difficulties 
connected with producing leaves that 
burn as well as is desired. 
