FRUIT BLOSSOMS. 209 



elaborate and exquisitely adjusted adaptations would be aimless. Doubt- 

 less the advantage is the same as that which. Is realized in all the higher 

 animals by the distinction of sexes. Man by intelligent study of its pro- 

 cesses may so modify the workings of nature as to secure results adapted 

 to his own use. While nature provides for the survival of the fittest to 

 perpetuate the species, man may provide for the survival of those best 

 fitted to contribute to his own wants and enjoyment. By utilizing our 

 knowledge of the various attributes of the blossoms and the most com- 

 mon lines of variation, we may breed with a certainty of success to almost 

 any desirable degree of excellence of fruit or hardiness of plants, as has 

 been done with our improved breeds of horses and cattle. The same funda- 

 mental laws of heredity govern all plant, animal and human life, and 

 when I see plants assisting nature's designs by voluntary action of their 

 own, I cannot help but feel that those attributes of existence, or quali- 

 ties of mind, called reason in man and instinct in animals, may be found 

 extending in less degree throughout all forms of vegetable or plant life. 

 The soul sleeps in plants, dreams in animals and awakes to life in man. 



The great success attending the work of Von Mons shows what may 

 be done in the development of fine quality by selection and close breed- 

 ing alone, but his trees and others produced in a like manner were gener- 

 ally lacking in hardiness, and as they displaced the poorer natives they 

 have given the pear a reputation for tenderness, which it should not pos- 

 sess. If he had understood the art of hybridizing and crossing, as we do to- 

 day, he would have, undoubtedly, improved their hardiness as well as qual- 

 ity of fruit. But their hardiness is not necessary in Prance, while it 

 is the first requisite here. 



Without alluding to the details of many individual experiments, we 

 have established by means of the blossoms two fundamental principles 

 of variation, by means of which we may secure what we need for the 

 great Northwest, viz: The constitutional vigor, hardiness and climate- 

 proof properties of inferior varieties, combined with the useful qualities 

 of superior truits. These two basic principles are: First. — The ability to 

 secure by cross-breeding varieties more hardy than the female parent 

 combined with the useful qualities of the male. Second.— The ability to 

 fix desirable characteristics by close crosses with like bred varieties pos- 

 sessing similar attributes. The female parent variety should always pos- 

 sess to a marked degree healthy, hardy habits of growth, and with small 

 fruits, especially, a large well-developed root system. The pistillate are 

 usually more liberally endowed with these qualities as well as mure pro- 

 ductive than their bi-sexual kindred; the staminate parent should not 

 be deficient in these, while excelling in size and quality of fruit. We 

 should use careful observation in the selection of individual blossoms and 

 plants, or our efforts for improvement may result in perpetuating defects, 

 which sometimes seem more easy to transmit than the virtues which we 

 seek to secure. It is not the true fruit, the seed, that we need to de- 

 velop, but its fleshy surroundings, the thickened corolla, the enlarged 

 torus of the selected blossom and the size and length of the fruit stem: 

 These should receive careful attention, as they all serve to modify results. 



In conclusion, let me say, from my own experience with small fruit, I 

 fully believe the time has come when the blossoms will act as a compass 

 to our apple growers and point the way to the production of those hardy, 

 long-keeping varieties of winter apples, which we all desire. 



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