REPORT OF SEEDLING COMMITTEE, I903. II3 



Mr. P. Clausen : I visited one of my friends at home before I 

 came up here, and we were looking over some apples. He showed 

 me an apple which was a small Danish apple, and called my atten- 

 tion to the fact that the apple was full of seeds. I do not remember 

 the exact number, but it was fifteen or sixteen seeds he took out of 

 a very small apple. 



Prof. Hansen : Talking about apple seeds, I have been working 

 on that for years and have examined hundreds of varieties. Some 

 varieties contained as many as nineteen seeds, and some contained 

 only three or four. There is a great variation. I think it depends 

 somewhat upon the season or how well the fertilizing is done. I 

 think after a time we shall be able to construct a table giving the 

 average number of seeds for each variety. 



Capt. Reed : Don't you find but five cavities ? 



Prof. Hansen : There are some European varieties that contain 

 only three or four. Five cavities is the standard number. All our 

 common apples have only five. 



Mr. Barnes : I am glad to hear this discussion. I understand 

 from the paper that has just been read that the number of seeds 

 is twelve. I am greatly interested in this matter, because I am try- 

 ing to propagate apples containing as few seeds as possible. It is 

 the maturing of the seeds that dwarfs the apple, and if we could 

 produce an apple with only two seeds instead of twelve to fifteen 

 it would be larger. 



Mr. Probstfield : While this question in regard to the number 

 of seeds in an apple is up for consideration I will state that ten 

 or eleven years ago I became an apple "crank." I acquired the 

 habit when I ate an apple of taking out the seeds and planting them. 

 The best apples we have are "sport" apples, and you will find in them 

 as many as nineteen seeds. I hate to contradict Capt. Reed, but I 

 have found as many as nineteen seeds in an apple, and frequently 

 as many as fifteen or sixteen. I got some seed from Mr. Sias four- 

 teen or sixteen years ago. He told me it was Hyslop seed. The 

 crabs grown from this seed commenced to fruit within the last three 

 years, and they have invariably twelve or more seeds. One is as 

 large as the Transcendent and is fully as good, only later, and it 

 fully answers the purpose for domestic use. The smaller apples 

 are better, but are full of seeds. I have only five seedlings, and the 

 last one is not good to eat ; it is good for nothing, but it is the finest 

 looking of the five. I have examined all those apples, and I know 

 they have more seeds than the gentleman stated. 



Mr. Yahnke : In regard to seeds, I have particularly -noticed in 

 the last few years in a variety of seedlings thai there are from five 

 lip to seventeen seeds, and T always fnmid th,it the best specimens 

 contained the fewest seeds. 



The Chairman ; I thmk there i? no better authority on thi? 

 subject -than Mr. C. G. Patten. 



Mr. Patten : I was just going to remark that T do not know that 



'this subject is of much importance. In reply to what was said by 



Prof. Hansen that a large number of seeds indicated a primitive 



form of the apple, I think that statement should be modified, perhaps. 



In my observ^ations and in cross-fertilizing I found man;^ of the 



