PROMISING NEW FRUITS. 



By WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, 

 Pomologist in Charge of Field Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Notwithstanding 1 the very strong tendency in recent j:ears among 

 commercial fruit growers in most sections to restrict their plantings to 

 a few varieties of proved productiveness, beauty, and shipping qual- 

 ity, there are strong indications that an increasingly large number of 

 growers are seeking fruits that combine these desirable features with 

 distinctive flavor and superior dessert qualit} r . The only way for the 

 individual grower to keep pace with progress is to test the. more 

 promising kinds of the fruits in which he is specially interested; he 

 can thus determine at small cost and with the least possible delay 

 whether such sorts are adapted to his conditions and needs. It is for 

 growers who desire to test such fruits that the series of descriptions 

 and illustrations of promising new varieties published in the Yearbook 

 from year to year is especially intended. It is believed that the varie- 

 ties included represent the cream of the new sorts, selected with due 

 regard to their adaptability to the representative fruit regions of the 

 country. 



The easiest and quickest method of testing new varieties of tree 

 fruits is the well-known practice of top working. To test a new sort 

 by this method it is only necessary to secure a scion or two of the 

 desired variety for budding or grafting upon an established tree of 

 I icaring age which will constitute a suitable stock for the varietj^ in 

 question. As the budding or grafting of a single branch is usually 

 sufficient for the preliminary test, a single established tree ma\'in this 

 way be made to carry a large number of new sorts. This plan has 

 the further advantage of concentrating a comprehensive collection 

 upon a small area of ground, and thus of reducing the cost of the 

 experimental work to a minimum. To the amateur fruit grower it 

 makes practicable the assembling of a much larger collection of varie- 

 ties within the confines of a village or city garden than would otherwise 

 be possible, and permits him to retain his touch with the continuous 

 progress of fruit culture, even though he can not reside upon the farm 

 or in the open countiy. 



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