CALIFORNIA PLANT BREEDING. 



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I have fruited many seedlings, but have not produced anything superior 

 to what we already had. From 1869 to 1878, when there was no sale for 

 pears and no codling moths, we could pick up free of charge all the pears we 

 wanted in orchards where they had dropped. Many men raised their own 

 pear seedlings. One j'ear I selected 4U0 out of 60,000 seedlings grown from 

 grafted fruit, worked them high on small limbs of old trees, these nearly 

 all fruited in four and five years, but none proved superior to those varieties 

 we had in cultivation. I have the same experience with plums of which 

 there are two good varieties not yet introduced. 



Three years ago we selected out of 120,000 apricot seedlings 500 and 

 budded them high on peach trees, some show very well for bearing, size and 

 ripening. We have also a lot of almonds on trial, worked the same way, 

 high on old trees. John Rock, 



California Nursery Company, Niles, Alameda Co., Cal. 



There are at Home Orchard, two apples, one apricot and two peaches 

 that I think have some claims for excellence, all chance seedlings. 



One of the apples is a seedling of the Grindstone, somewhat larger — a 

 yellow ground with light and darker red stripes — shape flatish round — both 

 stem and eye cavities deep — stem slender, core very small ; seeds plump and 

 dark. Fruit fine grained, moderately juicy, rich, with a slight acid flavor — a 

 good eating apple at Christmas and will keep till May or June. Tree an 

 upright, strong, healthy grower. The original tree grew just within the 

 Fresno grove of "Big Trees" (Sequoia gigantea) and is twenty-five or thirty 

 years old. A few trees have been propagated and sent out as Sequoia. 



The other apple originated here — a cross of White Winter Pearmain with 

 G. N. Pippin. It retains the peculiar flavor of the Pearmain with the rich 

 sharp acid of the Pippin. Color a greenish yellow, size medium, shape flat- 

 ish oblate, with prominent ribs, will keep to ay or later. Not handsome 

 in either color or shape, but many who have tested it think it the finest flav- 

 ored they have ever tasted. Tree a good worwer, healthy — spreading. None 

 have been propagated — no name. 



The apricot is a seedling of Blenheim, and blooms several days later — 

 fruit large, flatish oval, color not quite so dark as the parent; flavor about 

 the same, ripens evenly. Tree a very healthy, rapid grower and free from 

 gum, very prolific — not propagated — no name — originated here. 



A lemon colored cling peach is highly thought of in many orchards of 

 this vicinity — large when properly thined, sometimes a little blush in the 

 sun — no red at the seed, which is small — considered our best canning cling. 

 The tree is upright and the most rapid and healthy grower I know, and 

 comes true from the seed. The original tree was among a few others planted 

 in "early days" at a mining camp near Mariposa, and lived and bore fruit 

 without fence or care for many years — it was a noted tree — a grand nursery 

 stock. 



The other peach is a lemon yellow freestone, medium to large in size, 

 nearly round with a little bright red in the sun — flesh a bright yellow to the 

 seed — very similar to Muir, but more juicy and not quite so sweet — firm, and 

 we like it for canning — carries well — ripens about the first of September — 

 holds well on the tree, which is a tsrong, upright grower. I think it is a cross 

 of the above cling with some freestone. It is known at the hotels along the 

 stage line to "the valley" as "Yosemite," and is the best peach they get. No 

 trees outside of Home Orchard — originated here. 



Frank Femmons, Ahwahnee, Madera Co., Cal. 



We have not done much cross-fertilizing of plants excepting in Sweet 

 Peas, and on these lines have done a great deal of work since about 1890. 

 The first Cupid discovered by us was in 1894 — a pure white. In 1895 we 



