August 



THE POMOLOGIST. 



107 



For the Western Pomologist. 



Seedling Apples. 



Friend Miller: — I was a little surprised 

 to fiud in the July No. of the Pomologist 

 so severe a rebuke for my eautiomug people 

 against depending ou seedlings for valuable 

 varieties of apples. 



I tiud Dr. Stayman charges me with quot- 

 ing falsely from the February number of the 

 Pomologist in these words : 



" For Dr. Stayman said : ' It being a seed- 

 ling of the Ben Davis is sufficient gnarant\%' 

 ete. .And tlien lie says, "the above we have 

 never said, nor even so intimated.' " 



Now let me quote again from the February 

 number: "The tree is so identical in all its 

 habits with the Beu Davis, which is a .suffi- 

 cient guaranty of being hardy, productive, 

 and profitable, without further comment 

 from me." 



I can fi.id no name to father this sentence, 

 in the February number, but as Dr. Stay- 

 man anuou-.ces liiniself as Assistant Editori 

 and he living in Ka .sas, is it uot reasonable 

 for me to suppose that he was author of the 

 article ou the Kansas Queen ? 



Will Dr. Stayman, now since he has made 

 so much fuss about it, please tell us who the 

 author was? 



But what difference does it make who the 

 author was; it loas tlie subject, and not the 

 author, that I was upon. The question for 

 Dr. Stayman to discuss would more properly 

 have been, ^'Seedling Apples," not Stayman 

 vs. Foster. 



Now let me stir up Dr. Stayman ag.iin for 

 what he says in the July number about 

 Seedlings. He says : - 



"III connection with this subject we would 

 say that health}' a..d hard}' oti'spring must 

 have healtliy aiid hardy parentiige ; but it 

 dors not necessiarily follow that tliey are all 

 liedUhy and hardy, but it follows as a law 

 of nature that no oti'spring can be more 

 hardy and healthy than the paients." 



I wish to take the liberty to .say that I very 

 much doubt this principle. It is my opinion 

 that the Creator has fixed bounds and limits 

 to the advance of vegetable and animal life, 

 but to say that we have now attained to the 

 heiglit and limit of these improvements is 

 not correct ; for it must follow that if " no 

 offspring can be more hardy and healthy 

 than its parents," then that limit is already 

 reached in the parents. And while I would 

 discourage the idea and general practice of 

 depending on seedlings to produce the like 

 of the parent tree, yet I would like to have 

 our expi riraental farm, at the Agricultural 

 College, try, intelligently and scientifically, 

 to improve on our varieties of apples. While 

 th(^ pear and the grape, and many other 

 fruits and flowers have beeu imin-oved by 

 hybridizing, with a design of improving, I 

 know of no such effort ever having beeu 

 made with the apple, the best and most val- 

 uable of all our fruits. We very much want 

 a first quality apple that will keep until early 

 apples come again. 



SuEL Foster. 



The Howell Pear. 



This pear was originated by Thomas 

 Howell, of New Haven, Conn., in 1829- 

 The tree is an upright and free grower, an 

 early and profuse bearer ou the pear stock, 

 and among the best worked on the quince. 

 Skin, light waxen yellow, often with a finely 

 shaded cheek, thickly sprinkled with minute 

 russet dots and some russet patches. Flesh, 

 white, floe grained, juicy, melting, sweet 

 and pleasantly jjerfumed. Season September. 



No pear orchard is complete without the 

 Howell. J. J. Thomas, one of the solid 

 poinoliigical men of the day, classes the 

 Howell among the most desirable, as will be 

 seen from the following remarks by him on 

 early bearing pear trees. We copy from 

 the Country Gentleman, of which Mr. Thomas 

 is the Horticultural Editor : 



"A young cultivator, who has been 

 un.successful with dwarfs, wishes to know if 

 he cannot make a selection of early bearing 

 standards, so as to secure nearly' as quick 

 returns a.s from dwarfs. We answer, much 

 may be done in this way to secure the 

 desired result, by planting those varieties 



which have uniformly proved early bearers. 

 In the order of ripening, the Summer 

 Doyenne must undoubtedly be placed first. 

 Unless the tree is in a very rapidly growing 

 condition, it begins to bear when quite 

 young, and gives profuse crops afterwards. 

 The Birtlett is of course the heaviest bearer 

 of all .'-■orts, both when quite young and after 

 the tree attains full size. After the Bartlett 

 add the Washington, Seckel, Howell, Belle 

 Lucrative, Onondaga, Winter Nelis, and 

 Pas<e Colmar. The Giftiird may be added — 

 and if gr.-ifted standard height (m some 

 straight and vigorous grower, its feeble and 

 crooked growth may he obviated, and 

 Landsiime and symmetrical trees produced. 

 There are several other sorts, which, 

 although often giving good crops from 

 young trees, are not so uniformly productive 

 at an early age, such as Bloodgood, Dear- 

 born's Seedling, Rostiezer, Flemish Beauty, 

 Lawrence, Aleiicon, Columbia, etc. On the 

 other ha d, by planting such excellent 

 sorts exclusively as the Tyson, Dix, Sheldon, 

 etc., famous as tardy bearers, the young 

 owner may become di.scnuraged before he 

 enjoys the result of his labors. 



Alpike Strawberry. — Fuller says it 

 appears to be a well established fact that all 

 the natural varieties of the Alpine strawber- 

 ries reproduce themselves from seed, without 

 variation. 



