258 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



SEEDLING FEUITS. 



EEPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SEEDLING FRUITS. 



J. S. HARRIS. 



Mr. President and friends of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society: 



There is no one question in whicli the pomologists of Minnesota and 

 the entire Northwest are at this time so deeply interested as that of find- 

 ing varieties of fruit of the very best quality and covering every season of 

 the year, that are sufficiently hardy to endure the rigors of the climate) 

 and are adapted to general cultivation by our people. Every choice var- 

 iety of fruit grown in the orchards and gardens of the temperate zone has 

 been brought up to its present degree of excellence from very inferior 

 types of wild crabs, pears, grapes, «fec., through a long process of propa- 

 gating and cultivating seedlings. By placing the plants under the best 

 possible circumstances suggested by his intelligence, and by carefully 

 selecting seed from the fruit produced in this way, and continual planting 

 and cultivating, saving only the best, the ameliorating and improving 

 of varieties has kept pace with civilization, and man has in a long series 

 of ages obtained the many improved forms that are now so universally 

 cultivated. By slow degrees the sour and bitter crab has expanded into 

 the beautiful red-cheeked Pippin; the wild, thorny and scarcely edible 

 pear into the mellow Bergamot or Beurre Diel; and the bitter almond 

 into the delicious juicy peach. Many other species have improved in 

 about the same ratio, and the greatest improvement has invariably taken 

 " place in the face of the greatest obstacles and in places where nature was 

 not prodigal of perfections. 



In the whole range of the field occupied by the horticulturist there is 

 nothing more important and interesting than the originating of new 

 varieties, and it is doubly interesting to the horticulturist of our state 

 from the fact that varieties originated in a certain soil and climate are 

 nearly always found best adapted to that locality. Repeated trials of the 

 varieties of apples and their seedling descendants from the west of 

 Europe and the older states have convinced us that they will not succeed 

 here. Owing to the confusion of names and the uncertain quality of 

 many of the varieties recently introduced from Russia, they have been 

 but imperfectly tested and have not advanced very rapidly in public 

 favor; and our main hope now seems to lie in the originating of new 

 varieties from seed and creating a pomology of our own. I am glad 

 to be able to report that we seem to be making considerable progress, and 

 that the outlook is very promising. During the months of August, 

 September and October, as a field agent of the Division of Pomology, U. 

 S. Department of Agriculture, I was offered an opportunity to explore 

 about a dozen counties of the state and visit several fairs. The result 

 is that I have found in every county a deep and growing interest in fruit 

 culture, and discovered a considerable number of seedlings not heretofore 



