SECURING SEED 11 



as seed but more often are grown for one year in Europe 

 and then imported as seedlings. Nursery companies 

 claim that they can buy the year-old seedlings cheaper 

 than they can get the seed and grow them themselves. 

 The seedlings thus grown are no better than American 

 grown stock, the situation simply represents an economic 

 condition resulting from cheaper labor in Europe. 



In recent years efforts have been made to grow apple 

 seedlings in the United States. But few places have been 

 found that will grow a smooth, clean plant with a straight 

 root. The central west is now the chief center for growing 

 these seedlings. Mr. D. S. Lake of the Shenandoah Nur- 

 series, Iowa, makes the following statement on the subject: 

 " Nearly all the apple seedlings grown in the United 

 States are in the vicinity of Topeka, Kansas, up and down 

 the Kaw valley for thirty miles or more each way. This 

 bottom land is made soil and more or less sandy but ex- 

 tremely fertile. There are about one thousand bushels 

 of seed sown in the United States. Imported seed is mostly 

 used and all the native seed used comes from Vermont, 

 where there still remain some old seedling orchards. The im- 

 proved cider mills crush the seed more or less and it is pretty 

 hard to get good sound apple seed from Vermont. Some- 

 times half of the seeds are cracked by the mills, and when 

 the hulls are once cracked there is no chance for the seed 

 to grow. The French seeds are gathered from cider mills 

 in sections where apples are grown for the cider only. They 

 do not select choice varieties, but simply select and grow 

 apples that produce the most cider. These apples are 

 about the size of the seedling kinds grown in Vermont 



