154 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. I90O. 



CHANCE SEEDLINGS. 



In the development of American pomology the first step was 

 a sort of crude selection of chance seedlings, wherever these 

 might be found. The importance of having varieties adapted 

 to existing conditions was early understood, but the question 

 of how to get them was the trying one. It is a notable fact 

 that many of the varieties which today stand out as landmarks, 

 were accidental seedlings or chance discoveries of valuable 

 wild forms. 



Among the more prominent American fruit originating in this 

 way may be mentioned the Alexander or Cape grape, which 

 first introduced successful grape culture into Eastern America; 

 the Catawba, still a popular grape ; the Dorchester and Lawton 

 blackberries; Seckel pear; Wealthy apple; and many of the 

 best raspberries, gooseberries, cranberries and plums. 



SELECTION. 



The next step in the improvement of fruits was the selection 

 of parents from which^to grow seedlings. The importance of 

 the work Van Mons was doing in Belgium, in emphasizing the 

 principle of selection, has been noted above, but American 

 horticulturists soon outstripped their teacher. In 1882 James 

 Thatcher, in his American Orchardist, made recommendations 

 which today would be regarded as much better than those of 

 Van Mons. He says : "The seeds for planting should always 

 be selected from the most highly cultivated fruit and the fairest 

 and ripest specimens of such variety." William Kenrick, a 

 nurseryman of Roxbury, Mass., was more conservative and 

 inclined to adopt the theory of the natural deterioration of 

 varieties,* at the same time giving in detail the methods prac- 

 ticed by the great European plant breeder, as already described. 



A few examples of fruit originating from seed of carefully 

 selected parents will suffice. Diana, early recognized as a 

 valuable child of Catawba; Moore's Early, Worden, Pockling- 

 ton and the other numerous progeny of Concord, among 

 grapes ; Shiawassee, Princess Louise and Mcintosh, as seed- 

 lings of the Fameuse apple, as well as the numerous offspring 

 of Oldenburg, Rhode Island Greening and others ; the seedlings 



* Kenrick's New American Orchardist, pp. 24-32. 



