HOW TO PRODUCE THAT $1,000 PREMIUM APPLE. 469 
pedigree. The other part may be Hibernal, Duchess and Charlemoff. The 
one thousand dollar premium apple may be in one of those Grimes’ Golden. 
At two or three of the Minnesota state fairs I have noticed a seedling of 
the Transcendent crab raised by Mr. J. S. Harris. The apple was of good 
marketable size and a true winter keeper. Mr. Harris thought it was of no 
value owing to blight and said he would cut the tree down. This fall I was 
glad to hear that the tree would be spared. Seed from such a tree should 
be saved. The point I wish to make is drawn from the history of other 
fruits and flowers, and that is, if a hybrid or crossed plant is not wholly sat- 
isfactory its seedlings may be just what is wanted. A hybrid, or cross, in 
other words, is to be regarded in many cases only as an intermediate step 
in the process of evolution. 
In all the foregoing, crossing has been mentioned as the method most 
likely to give the desired results. But there is danger in introducing tender 
blood for sections where even the hardiest have enough to do to survive. 
Stock-breeders often in-breed to fix types. Why not try in-breeding with 
the hardiest apples, such as Hibernal? Possibly a seedling much similar in 
fruit but later in season might be obtained. The late Mr. Peffer, of Wiscon- 
sin, stated that a variety fertilized with its own pollen would come nearer 
true to seed. It might help us to get a Hibernal that would keep till June. 
What would Minnesota give for a Wealthy that would keep till June? The 
numerous seedlings of the Wealthy now appearing at the state fair show a 
decided prepotent tendency in the Wealthy in form and color. 
To breed an apple that would come wholly true to seed would take 
many generations and would be a useless undertaking, even if it proved 
possible to accomplish the work. 
Selecting the parents, one for hardiness and the other for quality of 
fruit, and crossing them by careful hand work, using forceps, paper or mus- 
lin sacks and a camel’s hair brush, should be tried by all who have the 
time and inclination and the necessary knowledge of the parts of a flower. 
But after all, some passer-by may throw a core into a fence corner or a 
bird drop a seed in some neglected spot that will produce a seedling excel- 
ling the best product of the hybridizer’s skill. However, while not neglect- 
ing the sowing of all the seed of desirable varieties that I can get hold of, 
especially those shown for premiums at state fairs and horticultural society 
meetings, I prefer to breed as many apples as possible with a known pedi- 
gree. Such work will serve to throw light on certain problems in plant- 
breeding, as well as proving the means, perhaps, of giving us the apple 
for which we are all seeking. 
At Brookings the sending south for pollen has proven to be disappoint- 
ing work, as has also the working with apple blossoms in the unfenced and 
niuch exposed college orchard. Late frosts have also destroyed the work 
at times. Hence a new departure has been made in the past three years 
in the breeding of hardy apples, plums and other fruits by growing them on 
dwarf stocks in pots and boxes in order to secure early fruiting and better 
control of climatic conditions at the time of blossoming. In my first trip 
to Europe in 1894, I was much interested in the pot culture of orchard fruits 
in the open air and under glass in the palace and experimental gardens for 
the purpose of raising fancy fruit, and these methods were studied with the 
view of applying them to the work of breeding hardy fruits. In the winter 
of 1896-97 a number of Paradise apple stocks were imported from Germany, 
and in the fall of 1897, under directions I sent from abroad, these were 
