146 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



mutations are inherited; variations re- 

 sulting from environment are not inher- 

 ited or at least there is no indisputable 

 evidence of such inheritance. Fluctuat- 

 ing variations in vigor, hardiness, and 

 size of plant and in color, size, amount 

 and quality of fruit play little part in 

 the improvement of plants. Selection 

 was formerly considered a continuous and 

 cumulative process; the revised theory is 

 that It is a discontinuous process and 

 new characters are added in one leap. 

 Somehow, somewhere, sometime in the 

 life of a species of plants, a wholly new 

 character is added, or removed, and the 

 variation is transmissible to the succeed- 

 ing generation. 



"May it not be true that size of fruit, 

 vigor, hardiness or productiveness of 

 plant may appear as mutations and be 

 heritable? These characters may appear 

 as heritable variations but it cannot be 

 known without precise experiments for 

 each case whether or not they will be 

 inherited. No fruit grower or nursery- 

 man is warranted in assuming that the 

 qualities named can be handed down — 

 the chances are many to one that such 

 variations are due to nurture and are 

 not transmissible. 



"For several years the speaker has 

 spent much time in studying the his- 

 tories of varieties of fruits. In 'The 

 Grapes of New York.' he has had to do 

 with about 1,500 grapes; in The Plums 

 of New York.' 2.000 sorts of plums; in 

 'The Apples of New York.' with about 

 700 kinds of apples. When this knowl- 

 edge of thousands of varieties is focused, 

 one sees in fruits stability and not varia- 

 tion. The generations of varieties of 

 fruit do not change. The Baldwin apple. 

 Bartlett pear. Concord grape, Montmor- 

 ency cherry have not changed. In the 

 station fruit exhibit are Greenings from 

 a scion of the 'original' Greening tree. 

 200 years old when the scions were 

 taken; besides them are Greenings grown 

 from trees propagated from nursery 

 stock. The characters of the two lots of 

 fruit are identical. If indiscriminate tak- 

 ing of buds for propagation means 

 changes, we should have innumerable 

 types of Baldwins, Bartletts, Concords, 



Montmorencies and these two lots of 

 Greenings ought not to look alike. 



"There are, probably, more than one 

 strain of some varieties of fruits, as of 

 the Baldwin for example. But these 

 strains are tew, not moi'e than two or 

 three for any variety and but one in the 

 great majority of fruits. No one knows 

 how strains have arisen — certainly not 

 by premeditated selection. The fact of 

 these occasional strains does not alter 

 the statement that the great majority of 

 the infinitude of variations in every or- 

 chard are not transmissible." 



The following letter from Alfred G. 

 Gulley of the Connecticut station corrob- 

 orates the view of Professor Hedrick: 



(5) "I have no doubt that variations 

 in tree fruits are chiefly due to environ- 

 mental causes and I have not seen or 

 produced variations due to causes which 

 lie within the tree itself. If the latter 

 is true why has there not been use 

 made of it and off year Baldwin orchards 

 produced? On the other hand, if true, 

 how do we have standard varieties at all? 

 Slight permanent variations would come 

 and varieties change from the original. 

 Bailey's 'Plant Breeding' says that a va- 

 riety will completely change in a cen- 

 tury. I doubted it, so some 12 years 

 ago sent over to Rhode Island and ob- 

 tained scions from the reputed original 

 tree. Whether original or not, it was 

 known to be Rhode Island Greening, and 

 at the time I got scions had had a writ- 

 ten bearing record of 175 years, nearly 

 two centuries. I grew this alongside an- 

 other tree, both same stocks, and grafted 

 from Rhode Island Greening trees ob- 

 tained in New York state, which no doubt 

 had been changed a dozen times or more 

 since leaving the original. I placed sam- 

 ples of fruit from both trees on the tables 

 at the Western New York Horticultural 

 Society two years ago and had the pleas- 

 ure of hearing Professor Bailey himself 

 say there is no difference. I have read 

 Professor Hedrick's bulletin (Circ. 18, 

 quoted above. — Ed.) and not only agree 

 with him but in the year 1905 presented 

 the same idea with some results along 



(5) A. P. Gulley, Correspondence. 1912. 



