SECRETARY'S REPORT. 81 



the sowing of seed accidentally fertilized. Let not this 

 recommendation in regard to cross-fertilization discourage the 

 planting of other seeds because they have not been artificially 

 impregnated, for they are frequently fertilized by the wind or 

 insects bearing the pollen from one variety to anotlier. 



Ill the production of new sorts we should aim first at a strong, 

 hardy, vigorous habit, and thus overcome a difficulty which 

 now exists with many of our best fruits. This is only to be 

 secured by the choice of parent varieties to breed from which 

 possess these characteristics. In regard to bearing properties 

 we should select those which come early into fruit and set the 

 fruit readily and annually, like the Bartlett, Louise bonne de 

 Jersey, and Vicar of Winkfield pears, and not like many others 

 which do not set their fruit until they have attained a great 

 age. With the apple we should study to produce kinds with 

 the constitution and beauty of habit as well as of fruit, like 

 the Baldwin, Gravenstien, and King, of Tompkins County, and 

 should avoid those of an opposite character. 



Impressed with the belief that the future success of fruit 

 culture in our country, must depend mainly upon varieties 

 raised from seed adapted to our several soils and localities, 

 your committee, without entering further and more minutely 

 into the different processes for obtaining seedling fruits, would 

 recommend to all cultivators to sow the seeds of their hardiest 

 and best sorts, and as a means of arriving at an early result, to 

 graft or bud the most promising seedlings on the branches of 

 mature trees, so as to ascertain their characteristics, without 

 waiting from generation to generation as in past time before 

 they are known. 



4th. The judicious pruning of fruit trees and the necessity of 

 thinnhig the crop. • 



Different species and different varieties of the same species 

 require different systems of pruning in order to control their 

 propensities and develop their appropriate form. The pruning 

 knife should, however, be used sparingly and only to answer 

 the stern demands of necessity. To injudicious pruning or to 

 the utter neglect of it at the proper time, may be traced much 

 of the decline and decay of our orchards in New England. 

 As to the season most appropriate for pruning, our judgment 

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