THE SELECTION OF BUDS FOR BUDDING. 



AT a recent meeting of the American 

 Nurserymen's Association, Prof. 

 Iv. H. Bailey took as the subject of 

 his address, " The Whole Question of Varie- 

 ties," and at the close of his remarks a ques- 

 tion was asked which should be carefully 

 considered by every propagator of trees at 

 this season of the year. 



The question was put by Mr. George A. 

 Sweet as follows : 



As I understand Prof. Bailey, his sugges- 

 tion is that the practical nurseryman must 

 select his buds from a known bearing tree of 

 value, and thereby get a valuable strain of 

 that variety. Now, the point that occurs 

 to me is this: We will say that we go to 

 Mr. Hale, who is a great peach man, and 

 say that we want some buds from the best 

 Crawford peach that he has on his place, 

 and we get a package of buds and bud them. 

 Now, next year, is it assumed by Prof. 

 Bailey that we must send to Mr. Hale again 

 and get our stock of buds from that particu- 

 lar tree, or are we at liberty to use the buds 

 that come from the growth of that tree, as- 

 suming that parent tree to have been flie 

 most valuable Crawford to be grown? If 

 he takes that position, of course it would 



simplify the question of bud selections; but 

 if he accepts the latter proposition, where is 

 the limit to come? Are they going to de- 

 teriorate in the second or fourth generation, 

 or are they all going to propagate true to 

 name, as the original? That is practically 

 what our nurserymen are now doing. I 

 should like to know if, with that limitation, 

 it would be possible to cut sufficient buds 

 from one tree to carry on the business? 



Prof. Bailey — I am glad to have that 

 question brought up, because it is exceed- 

 ingly important, and because on that hinges 

 the feasibility of the whole scheme. I am 

 free to say that I cannot answer Mr. Sweet's 

 question. There are four or five questions 

 involved which have been up a number of 

 times before societies ; one comes before a 

 meeting of this sort with more or less theo- 

 retical ideas of things which are going to 

 come in the future. I do not expect any 

 nurseryman ever can live up to these ideals 

 in the beginning, but we are going to work 

 along that line, reaching them as nearly as 

 possible. Now, to come down to the great 

 question of Mr. Sweet's, I am so much in- 

 terested in this matter myself that on my 

 own place I have planted a small orchard of 



