STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 153 



the next sixteen years, with 20,000 or 30,000 choice, selected 

 trees from the very best of seed, which are not yet fruited, and 

 the seed of over one hundred bushels of choice apples planted this 

 fall, all to fruit in a few years ? Then on, on, planting the seed 

 of the best each year, soon the choice varieties will count into the 

 hundreds, and the great Northwest will be the fruit paradise of 

 America. 



To get the desired cross we plant the selected varieties in close 

 proximity, so that the natural fall of pollen will the more surely 

 do the desired fertilizing, and the seed thus produced being 

 planted, the most promising of the seedlings selected and set in 

 orchards for fruiting, and, after fruiting, the best in tree and 

 fruit being selected from which to grow seeds to try again, and 

 so on, at each repetition I find there is a gain. The young trees 

 that fruited this year for the first gave a larger percentage of 

 first-class apples than any lot ever fruited before. 



By crossing and judicious selection we retain the hardiness of 

 the crab in the tree without the crab thorns, and on top grow 

 large apples without the astringency of the parent crab. And 

 yet, by the commingling of the two natures, we get an exquisite 

 flavor not found in any other class of apples, especially so when 

 made into sauce. But our triumph is not yet complete; we must, 

 we can, fill up the balance of the year with a continued succes 

 sion of luscious apples. There is no question as to the certainty 

 of such a result; the past is a guarantee that it can be done. 



But the proper cross can't be got in Minnesota; a fact clearly 

 demonstrated in the extensive and expensive trials that have 

 been made in the last nine years in the State orchard. And here 

 let me state that the seedling is inclined to ripen its fruit at or 

 near the time the parent apple did from which the seed was 

 taken, hence the need of seed from long keepers to grow the 

 same. There are no long keepers, of the best quality, yet found 

 that are hardy enough to fruit in Minnesota; but we can take our 

 best hardy seedlings further south, where the long keepers can 

 be grown, and there get the cross and then bring the seed here to 

 grow and test the hardiness of tree and quality of fruit. We want 

 first-class apples, and to get them we must use first-class parent- 

 age. And even then scullions will be numerous, from the fact 

 that all varieties of apples are mongrels of many degrees of cross- 

 ing, and the various relations will crop out in a multitude of 

 forms. But past success is a guarantee for the future that out of 

 the many some will be good. Our seedlings will average in 

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