STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 97 



selection, but I do maintain that such instances are too rare for 

 us to make a general principle out of the behavior of selected 

 buds in one particular instance. Such instances of valuable bud 

 selection are too rare to advise it as a general practice for nur- 

 serymen and orchardists. 



Let us look at another case. In 1891, The New York Geneva 

 Station planted an orchard of Rome Beauty. The stocks were 

 all carefully selected Ben Davis, and these were budded to 

 Rome Beauty buds that had all been taken from the same tree. 

 Yet an examination of the records of the performance of this 

 orchard shows a great variation in the behavior and growth of 

 the trees. Prof. Hedrick, in writing about these trees, says, 

 "Experimenters, fruit growers and nurserymen are not distin- 

 guishing sharply enough between what is due to 'nature' and 

 what is due to 'nurture.' " In other words, the dififerences found 

 in the behavior of these trees is probably due entirely to their 

 environment and not to their breeding. 



Still another experiment, which I must quote largely from 

 memory as I have been unable to locate the reference : Dr. J. 

 C. Whitten, of the University of Missouri, observed a Ben 

 Davis tree in the University orchards that bore more and better 

 (if such a term can be applied to Ben Davis) apples than any 

 other tree of the variety in the orchards. Dr. Whitten propa- 

 gated a number of trees from this tree. He also propagated a 

 number of trees from the poorest bearing Ben Davis tree in 

 the same orchard. These trees were planted, alternating in 

 the row, and given the same care. After several years of bear- 

 ing, no differences could be noted between the trees from the 

 heavy producing parent and the trees from the low producing 

 parent. 



A number of reliable growers of strawberries have had con- 

 siderable experience with "pedigree" strawberry plants and the 

 evidence submitted seems to point to the fact that, as far as the 

 strawberry is concerned, there is no benefit to be derived from 

 selecting runners from heavy bearing plants. Just as good 

 bearing plants can be secured by propagating from runners from 

 plants that have a light crop. 



Shamel's work in California with citrus fruits would seem to 

 be in favor of the plan of bud selection. Shamel says : "The 

 most astonishing and striking fact disclosed in our studies, and 



