454 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



INFLUENCE OF CULTIVATION ON THE PERMANENT 

 IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT. 



DEWAIN COOK, JEFFERS. 



The public at large undoubtedly have but a faint idea of just how 

 we came by the fine fruits of the present day, and that the fine apples 

 of the present day are descendants of the small, sour, bitter wild 

 crab of Europe, our Concord and Worden grapes from the wild 

 Labrusca grape of America, the large blue plum of commerce from 

 the small, bitter sloe of the Eastern Continent, etc., etc. 



It is said that all wild fruits are easily domesticated and take on 

 the impress of culture. It will be remembered that our garden va- 

 rieties of fruits are not natural forms but are the artificial productions 

 of our culture. These artificial productions have a tendency to im- 

 prove under cultivation, but they have a still stronger tendency to 

 return to the natural or wild state. But it is also claimed that these 

 retrograde seedlings never quite return to their original wild state; 

 hence, whatever improvement we may gain by cultivation will to 

 some extent, at least, be permanent, and with the various methods 

 of grafting, divisions, etc., I know of no reason why we can not hold 

 permanent all improvement that we may gain through civilization. 



The object and tendency of cultivation of fruits is to diminish the 

 size of the seeds, refine the quality and increase the size of the pulp. 

 When we take note that the aim of nature in its wild state is only 

 to produce healthy trees and plants and perfect seed for the produc- 

 tion of its specie, then we can understand something of what cultiva- 

 tion has done up to the present time for the permanent improvement 

 of our fruits. 



Some may say that the taking of fine varieties of native plums, like 

 the De Soto, Cheney, Rollingstone, Forest Garden, Aitkin, etc., as 

 wild fruits direct from the woods disproves this seed statement. But 

 let it be understood that it is generally conceded by our advanced 

 horticulturists that our native plums were once cultivated by some 

 prehistoric race and have not yet quite returned to their original wild 

 state. 



Cultivation for the improvement of our fruits is not to be taken 

 in the narrow sense of just stirring the soil with a hoe or a plow. 

 One of Webster's definitions of "cultivate" reads as follows : "To 

 improve, to meliorate, to labor to make better, to correct, to civilize." 

 Thus, when we transplant to a better location, manure, plow, mulch, 

 cut back and girdle for the purpose of getting extraordinarily large 

 fruit, when we cross fertilize or plant seeds from the best specimens 

 and from the best seedlings and select the best from these, in fact, 



