APPLES 



147 



other lines of work at the Western New 

 York Horticultural Society meeting, and 

 had the jirivilege of having Professor 

 Hedrick and George T. Powell climb all 

 over me for taking such notions. Upon 

 receiving the bulletin I wrote to Professor 

 Hedrick and congratulated him upon his 

 change of heart. I quote from his reply, 

 "Your letter in regard to Circular 18 is 

 at hand. We live to learn. The theory 

 that varieties of fruit could be improved 

 by bud selection seemed so plausible 

 to me that without stopping to analyze 

 it very closely and without doing any 

 experimental work, I accepted it and 

 preached it. I remember very well dis- 

 agreeing with you at the Rochester meet- 

 ing. Y'our long and wide experience 

 should have made me more careful. Al- 

 most from that meeting I became a 

 doubter and for the last two years have 

 given the subject of pedigreed trees a 

 great deal of attention in the various 

 aspects put forth in Circular 18.' 



"I think much of the trouble lies in 

 the attempt made by many to reason that 

 seed and bud propagation should produce 

 the same results. They are not the same. 

 Many are not willing to take the time 

 to test their propositions. I was just 10 

 years working out the Greening matter. 

 I believe there is something in the mu- 

 tation theory. I think the Colamer apple 

 belongs here, as I do not understand that 

 any claim has been made that it is im- 

 proved, but discovered." 



Other Opinions 



Not a few reliable nurserymen believe 

 that the "pedigreed tree" is a species of 

 faking, misleading to say the least, the 

 only claim that can be legitimately made 

 being that care has been exercised in the 

 selection of scions from healthy trees 

 and in keeping them true to name. One 

 noted specialist puts it: (6) "Selecting 

 scions for type is rational, selection for 

 variation is a dream as far as we now 

 have any knowledge." Perhaps this view 

 is extreme, as there are other men ap- 

 parently sincere and among them some 

 thoroughgoing scientists who are suffi- 

 ciently convinced that there is something 



in the idea that they are devoting time 

 and expense to its further study. Bui-- 

 bank thinks that there is truth in the 

 theory but that (7) "its value has been 

 greatly overestimated. Ten valuable vari- 

 ations are produced by seed to one bud 

 variation." 



In fairness to the advocates of the pedi- 

 gree theory it must be said that one 

 bit of positive evidence is worth a whole 

 world of merely negative evidence. The 

 work of A. D. Shamel, of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, in California, on citrus 

 bud variation promises to yield impor- 

 tant results. The work here has been 

 greatly simplified by the fact that prac- 

 tically all of the navel oranges in Cali- 

 fornia are the descendants of two trees. 

 Following is a brief account of the re- 

 sults thus far secured: 



"Our four years' work here has given 

 us a definite line on the frequency of 

 citrus bud variations, their relation to 

 the permanence of citrus types, and the 

 comparative value of these types. 



"We have determined the standard types 

 of the Washington and Thompson navel 

 orange. Eureka lemon, Marsh's seedless 

 pomelo, and Valencia orange and the 'off' 

 types of these varieties. We have devel- 

 oped a practical tree performance record 

 system now in use in over 5,000 acres of 

 citrus fruits, for determining the trees 

 which are to be rebudded, the 'drones.' " 



A. D. Sliamel, Correspondence. 1912. 



The >'atiire of the Budding Operation 



A brief statement of the nature of the 

 process which is employed in budding 

 and grafting might be helpful in clear- 

 ing the whole problem of certain mis- 

 conceptions which arise out of the neces- 

 sity of employing terms which belong to 

 another field. 



(8) "When you take a bud or limb from 

 a given variety of tree, and insert that 

 bud on another stock to which it attaches 

 itself and from which its life IS obtained, 

 for the bud to continue its growth sim- 

 ply amounts to continuing or extending 

 the length of the branch of the original 

 tree, and it can no more change the na- 



(6) E. J. Wickson, Correspondence, 1912. 



(71 I>. Burhank, Correspondence. 1912. 

 (8) F. WiKgins, Correspondence. 



