THE APPLE 219 



more nearly fixed than others. The Fameuse, 

 Gravenstein, Garden Royal, and Golden Russet 

 may be named among those that tend to repro- 

 duce a good many of their charac f eristics in their 

 seedlings. Yet from any of these there may be 

 produced apples showing almost every possible 

 variation as to size, shape, acidity, flavor, and 

 color. And so the growth of seedlings will be 

 undertaken only for the purpose of securing new 

 variations or to supply stocks on which to graft 

 cions from old ones. 



In raising apple seedlings to obtain improved 

 varieties it is best to select seed from some one 

 standard apple that already possesses most of 

 the good qualities sought in the improvement, 

 because comparative tests are more easily 

 made from one variety than from mixed seed. 

 There is much variation among different vari- 

 eties as to keeping qualities of the seed and 

 the characteristics of the seedlings. Seedlings 

 of the Baldwin, for example, are pecul- 

 iarly subject to mildew; seedlings of the 

 Xewtown are usually rather slow and slender 

 growers. 



As a general rule it may be said that the seeds 

 of winter apples have a greater tendency to pro- 

 duce winter apples than summer apples, whereas 

 summer apples are almost as likely to produce 



