NOTES ON SEEDLINGS. I3I 



NOTES ON SEEDLINGS. 



WYMAN ELLIOT, MINNEAPOLIS. 



Seedling trees have not made so much growth the past season 

 as in previous years. 



In selecting apple tree seedHngs to plant for fruiting, choose 

 those of robust habit, with well developed, healthy foliage (for the 

 leaves are the lungs of the tree, where the sap is aerated, or elabo- 

 rated, and thence descends through the sap tubes to form the cell 

 growth), free from thorny spurs, for producing large apples; and 

 those with spurs for producing crabs and hybrids, to use for fruit- 

 ing or for top-grafting with tender and half-hardy kinds. Always 

 use those free from blight or other imperfections. 



For a long lived seedling orchard, trees with a well developed 

 root system are preferable to those of an inferior formation. The 

 root of the tree is the foundation upon which it stands ; if de- 

 fective there will be a very poor growth. These functions are to 

 give stability and underground hardiness, rich food and moisture 

 to be^ digested by the aerial parts of the tree. 



In the past most of the fruits have come from natural crosses 

 and chance seedlings; in the future more care will be exercised to 

 produce quicker and better results. Many of our standard varie- 

 ties commercially have sprung from chance seedlings which were 

 unappreciated for many years, but as they became locally popular 

 some enterprising person brought them to the notice of fruit grow- 

 ers as worthy of planting. 



The sum and substance of all breeding for a particular purpose 

 must be a judicious crossing to produce the thing desired, followed 

 by a wise selection of the best, always the best, and these recrossed 

 again with others possessing ideal qualifications, possibly through 

 several generations until the object sought for is obtained. Seed 

 for planting, to produce seedlings for fruiting for improvement in 

 the direction desired, should be taken from choice, named varieties 

 and long keeping seedlings of the largest size, first quality, good 

 color and texture, possessing as many points of excellence as pos- 

 sible. 



A fruit tree, to be of the highest commercial value for this 

 northern climate, should possess seven qualifications, possibly more: 

 First and foremost is that resistant, inherent quality, hardiness, 

 which must dominate, every fruit tree to enable it to withstand the 

 vicissitudes of our changeable climate conditions. The second is 

 healthfulness, a twin brother of hardiness. Unless a tree is healthy, 

 vigorous and able to oppose the many attacks of bacterial, insect and 



