FRUIT BREEDING 273 



The chief conclusions which may be reached from these results 

 are that nearly all varieties are heterozygous for color and that 

 white is a pure recessive. 



In studies of inheritance of quality there is a proof of the value 

 of selecting as parents the types which excel for the character 

 being worked with. Table LXXIV gives some of the results 

 of crosses in which quality was studied. 



TABLE LXXIV. INHERITANCE OF QUALITY IN THE GRAPE 



Nearly all grapes of high quality at the New York station 

 contain some V. vinifera blood. This is easily understood 

 when one remembers the long period of breeding of the European 

 varieties and that American varieties were only recently obtained 

 from the wild. Inheritance of size of grape berry and ripening 

 period showed the value of selecting as parents varieties which 

 excel in the character which the breeder wishes to obtain. 



Illustrations of Methods of Breeding. Methods of breeding 

 fall naturally under three main heads; 



1. Selection of bud sports. 



2. Seedling selection. 



3. Controlled crosses. 



As has been already mentioned many of our varieties have 

 resulted from chance seedlings, others from seedlings in which 

 only one parent was known. A review of the subject leads to the 

 conclusion that the improvement of fruits by the use of self- 

 fertilized seed is a less desirable method than by the use of crossed 

 seed. When selfed seed can be produced the progeny are as a 

 rule less vigorous than those obtained from crossed seed. As 

 these subjects have been touched upon in some detail under other 

 headings, seedling selection will not be discussed further. 



Selection of Bud Sports. It is now a commonly accepted fact 

 that mutations or sudden changes in the germinal material do 

 occasionally occur. Likewise, in asexually propagated species 



18 



