BREEDING AND ORIGINATION OF NEW FRUITS. 123 



the process is too easy and simple and will largely eliminate 

 him. All that is necessary will be to furnish the exact con- 

 ditions under which Nature grew that apricot tree, practi- 

 cally the same under which all chance fruit seedlings have 

 been grown; viz., first, a firm, compact seed-bed, breaking 

 only ground enough to plant the seed, if virgin soil all the 

 better. Second, absolute preservation of the entire root sys- 

 tem of the tree, and possibly of the tops also, thus maintain- 

 ing the natural equilibrium between the two. Liberal ferti- 

 lizing and water in severe droughts would likely aid by giving 

 the seedling a chance to do its best. As to seed, Nature has 

 no choice, but must take what man or the birds cast aside, 

 or what drops from the trees, all of which have been de- 

 graded by cultivation and the influence of inferior stocks, as 

 outlined by Charles Downing in the following extract from 

 his great work : 



" But there is still another reason for this habit, so perplexing to 

 the novice, who, having tasted a luscious fruit, plants, watches, and 

 rears its seedling, to find it, perhaps, wholly different in most re- 

 spects. This is the influence of grafting. Among the great number 

 of seedling fruits produced in the United States, there is found occa- 

 sionally a variety, perhaps a plum or a peach, which will nearly 

 always reproduce itself from seed. From some fortunate circum- 

 stances in its origin, unknown to us, this sort, in becoming improved, 

 still retains strongly this habit of the natural or wild form, and the 

 seeds produce the same. We can call to mind several examples of 

 this : fine fruit trees whose seeds have established the reputation in 

 the neighborhood of fidelity to the sort. But when a graft is taken 

 from one of these trees, and placed upon another stock, this grafted 

 tree is found to lose its singular power of producing the same by 

 seed. The stock exercises some as yet unexplained power in dissolv- 

 ing the strong natural habit of the variety, and becomes, like its fel- 

 lows, subject to the laws of its artificial life." 



Now if Nature in her grand fruit creations, thus handi- 

 capped (for all fruit trees are now grown on other roots than 

 their own), has yet been able to accomplish horticultural won- 

 ders far beyond the dreams even of a Burbank, what perfec- 

 tion might she not have attained had all her chance seedlings 

 been grown from an Elberta peach, or a Baldwin apple, or 

 other fine variety on its own roots and on unbroken 

 ground ? Just how far the latter conditions are determining 



