LUTHER BURBANK 
could not be made in this way of all the varieties, 
it was possible to make a very fair comparative 
test. The poorer seedlings were from time to time 
removed, leaving space for better development of 
those that remained. Later some of the trees 
whose fruit was not promising were used as 
stocks on which to graft hybrid pears and other 
seedlings. 
By this method I have tested probably fifty 
thousand quince seedlings. 
The first important result of this experiment 
in crossbreeding was the production of a quince 
of large size from a seedling produced by pollen- 
izing a Portugal quince with the Orange quince. 
Among my seedlings one individual showed 
marked superiority over its fellows even in the 
seed-bed, by its unusual vigor and the rich green 
of its large, finely formed foliage. 
Among the entire lot of 700 cross-bred seed- 
lings, this one alone proved really valuable. 
The fruit it bore received the Wilder Medal at 
the meeting of the American Pomological Society 
at Washington, D. C., in September, 1891. It was 
so generally admired and promised to be so valu- 
able that Professor H. E. Van Deman, then Chief 
of Division of Pomology, U. S. Department of Ag- 
riculture, was pleased to have it named for him. 
The Van Deman quince inherits great productiv- 
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