STATE HORTICIJLTUEAL SOCIETY. 295 



NOTES AND EXTRACTS 



EROM THE AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL REPORT 

 19TH BIENNIAL MEETING, 1883. 



IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT BY SEED PLANTING. 



President Wilder. ''Thus would I preach while life shall last; 

 Plant the most mature and perfect seeds, of the most hardy, vigor- 

 ous and valuable varieties of fruits, and as a shorter process, insur- 

 ing more certain and happy results, cross and hybridize our finest 

 kinds, for still greater excellence." 



QUALITY AND HARDINESS IN SEEDLINGS. 



Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevaut, Geneva, N. Y. To improve the quality 

 of fruit, select seed from fruit containing less seed than the average 

 for its kind. Cross-fertilize small or few-seeding varieties with 

 pollen from varieties of the same or similar habit as to seed, and 

 from the produce select the few seeded specimens for continuous 

 plantings. Continue this kind of selections through succeeding 

 generations of seedlings. These suggestions of Dr. Sturtevant are 

 based on facts in his experiments at the New York farm at Geneva, 

 indicating that quality in fruit improves by the care of man in 

 fruit trees and plants in proportion to the decrease of seeds. 



A row of strawberry plants raised from seed that were showed 

 me by Dr. Sturtevant, exhibited facts in this direction. Taking 

 the same variety of berries — if I remember rightly, the Wilson, he 

 set for the first hill a seedling plant raised from a berry containing 

 the largest number of perfect seeds; the next hill, the next largest, 

 the next, the next, and so (m till the last hill, which was from the 



