STATK POMOI.OGICAI, SOCIETY. 99 



gation. We cannot pass judgment upon Shamel's work until 

 we know if the seven types of Washington Navel Orange which 

 he mentions are permanent types and if they will "come true" 

 when budded upon other trees. Until this fact has been estab- 

 lished we cannot accept Shamel's work as a proof of the value 

 of bud selection in propagating trees. Even though these types 

 should prove permanent we could not accept that fact as proof 

 that bud selection would be the thing to practice in propagating 

 deciduous fruits, such as apples, pears, etc. 



The very fact that Shamel found all seven types growing 

 upon a single tree would indicate that his types would fail to 

 "bud true." But we should not judge this work with citrus 

 fruits until it is finished. In dealing with nature it is often best 

 not to prophesy. 



Now let us depart from the realms of experimentation and 

 see what reason can do for us in solving this vexatious question 

 of "pedigree" bud selection. In the first place it must be pointed 

 out that the advocates of "pedigree" fruit trees have reasoned 

 from a false premise. They have said: "If there is merit in 

 selecting the best member of the herd to breed from or the best 

 plant in the garden to save seed from, why should we not take 

 our buds and scions from the best fruit trees in our orchard?" 

 Why should we not grasp the benefits of extra quality and 

 heavy production and pass these good qualities on to a new set 

 of trees in a new orchard ? There is absolutely no similarity in 

 fact between the first two cases and propagating by buds and 

 scions. In the case of the animal and the seed we have the 

 intervention of sex to reckon with, while in the case of fruit 

 tree propagation by scions, buds or cuttings, there is no question 

 of sex. In the case of seed, we have handed down in the seed 

 a combination of definite characters of the two parents. Since 

 the chance for differing combinations of these characters is 

 great, we consequently expect and do get a great variation in 

 the seedlings from the two parent plants. A bud, a scion, a 

 runner or a cutting is simply a transported portion of the parent 

 plant. Correctly speaking, all the Spy apple trees in the world 

 are simply pieces of the original Spy tree ; take them where you 

 may, from Maine, Delaware, Michigan, Oregon or California, 

 and they will still remain Spys. 



