THE NEED OF FRUIT-BREEDING. 171 



crabs or Russian apples, if apples can be said to have blood lines 

 of descent. 



The point I am trying to make is that of all the varieties 

 which we now have those which are best for Minnesota are kinds 

 which either have been introduced from Russia or which have 

 been developed here, and the best of them have been developed 

 here. 



We must do right here the fruit-breeding work which is to 

 benefit us. We must develop our improved varieties here, out 

 of the plant materials already here and any others which we can 

 gather through the help of Professor Hansen and such other 

 explorers from any part of the earth where good and useful 

 plant material may be found. It is on this improved material 

 that we are to build our most successful horticulture in the 

 future. How is this to be done? 



Methods of Improving Plants. — The lines along which plant 

 breeding can be developed are indicated by the methods used in 

 propagating plants. We know that propagation of plants is 

 either by sexual or by asexual methods. Take the apple for 

 illustration. We have propagation from seed. This may repre- 

 sent either one or two parent varieties. Then there is propa- 

 gation by means of budding or grafting, which signifies the per- 

 petuation of that particular variety by division into separate 

 parts; it is simply a continuation of the original individual from 

 which the buds or scions were taken. And so, although apple 

 varieties do not come true from seed, we may multiply the trees 

 of any variety indefinitely by propagating its buds or cions. 



Again we have the development of new types from seed as 

 the result of hybridizing, i. e., crossing the parents to produce 

 the seed. 



Very seldom do we have — but we may have — the origination 

 of new varieties asexually as graft hybrids. In other words, 

 there is such a thing as a graft hybrid, although just what its 

 nature is botanists have not decided. 



Finally, we may have a new variety originating as a sport. 

 For example : I have in mind a Concord grape vine on one side 

 of which came out a branch which bore fruit almost twice as big 

 as the ordinary Concord, a giant Concord, so to speak. When 

 the giant Concord clusters were self-fertilized and the seed prop- 

 agated it gave us a distinct line of seedlings as compared with 

 the seedlings grown from the normal type of Concord produced 

 by the other side of the same vine. Here was a new variety that 



