BURBANK'S WAY WITH TREES 



wide range of variation as to their hereditary 

 factors ; so the seedlings grown from them will be 

 by no means uniform. Some will probably grow 

 much more rapidly than others, and when in due 

 course they come to maturity, they will vary 

 greatly as to the quality of their nuts. 



But fortunately the seedlings may be fairly de- 

 pended upon to show their qualities very soon 

 after their cotyledons break the soil. The young 

 plants that are of vigorous growth, with relatively 

 thick stems and large fat buds, may safely be 

 preserved as having future possibilities greatly 

 exceeding those of their less thrifty fellows. Mr. 

 Burbank assures us that it is not necessary to 

 raise the entire lot of seedlings and await their 

 time of maturing. You may safely follow his ex- 

 ample in selecting the ones that grow rapidly 

 during the first few weeks or months, weeding out 

 the others. 



But whereas you must expect a relatively wide 

 range of variation, it of course is also true that 

 on the average the seedlings grown from nuts of 

 a tree that is a good bearer will be superior to 

 those grown from the product of an inferior tree. 

 So, as a matter of course, you will select for seed 

 purposes only the very best nuts. In this connec- 

 tion, however, you must recall what has been said 

 in the earlier articles about judging a plant by 

 its total product rather than by the individual 

 specimens. 



A small individual nut from a tree that gen- 

 erally bears large nuts would have greater prom- 



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