ORIGIN AND IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT 327 



inferior quality. All but a few of those which fruited were 

 as good as the named varieties of Russian apples." 



Again in 1898 a large number of seedling trees was planted 

 by Macoun. The seeds were taken from varieties of standard 

 quality, such as Mcintosh, St. Lawrence, Fameuse, Wealthy, 

 Gano, and Northern Spy. Excellent results were obtained, 

 and in 1916 he reported that "During the past twelve years, 

 1211 of these seedling varieties have fruited, and of these, 

 83.30 per cent were of marketable size (medium to large) 

 and only 3.95 per cent were small or crab-like. Of the 1211 

 varieties, there have been 378 considered so promising that 

 they are being propagated for further test and 99 of the best 

 have been named." Some of the hardiest of his apples have 

 fruited as far north as latitude 58°, at Fort Vermilion on 

 Peace River. 



In addition to this work, a somewhat different procedure 

 was followed by Macoun in 1910. Seed was saved of the 

 hardiest Russian apples, including Transparent, Charlamoff, 

 Oldenburg, Tetofsky, and Hibernal. The seedling trees were 

 sent to the prairie provinces, where the winters are particu- 

 larly severe, and planted in nurseiy rows. After three years, 

 any that survived the winter were transplanted to an orchard 

 for further trial, and in this way the hardiest trees were 

 selected and those producing worthy fruit were retained for 

 propagation. 



Special work is also being conducted with crossing and 

 hybridizing apples. Preliminary studies are being made on 

 the transmission of fruit characters as a basis for future 

 investigation. This work in crossing was begun by William 

 Saunders about 1894. He introduced the berried crab {Pyrus 

 hnccata) from Russia several years before; and after deter- 

 mining its hardiness he made crosses between that species 

 and many of the best and hardiest sorts of apples (P. Mains) 

 grown in Ontario. In 1896 he used another hardy wild 



