178 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Prof. Bessey — Yes, three thousand six hundred varieties of our 

 delicious apples. 



A great evolution has been brought about since the time of the 

 Swiss lake dwellers. Great changes have been made. From the 

 sour thing we have the sweet; from this small, green thing we have 

 our large, red, striped, and golden apples. This is duplicated in the 

 case of many other fruits. 



The pear, originally small, has not been modified so much as the 

 apple. Yet it has undergone great changes from the small, sour, 

 spotted fruit of olden times to the present large delicious fruit. 



The peach comes from China, not from Persia, as many suppose. 

 Its early history is lost, but it is similar to that of the apple no doubt. 



The thick fleshed peach of to-day is far removed from the original 

 fruit with its large pit and very thin meat, scarcely more than a skin. 



Plums have a different history : In the old world there are two 

 species which have undergone great modifications, but these have been 

 enriched by the addition of three American species, which have also 

 undergone much change. 



The cherry comes from two old world species. Although we have 

 several species native of America our horticulturists have not attempted 

 to cultivate any of them, but seem content with those of the old world. 

 One of our wild cherries is very much the European varieties. 



Our grapes, unlike most other fruits, are not from the old world, 

 but are evolved from our own native wild grapes. The old world 

 grape has been grown so long that we cannot tell much about its for- 

 mer history. It is possible there is some old world grape blood in one 

 species of ours, the JEstivalis. You can find wild grapes growing in 

 many parts of America that are nearly as large as the cultivated one. 

 The horticulturist here has a grand field before him to improve these 

 wild varieties. 



Gooseberries are mostly of the old world kind. We have wild ones 

 in this country, but they have not been cultivated and improved to any 

 great extent. 



The currant grows wild in the old world, as it also does here, but 

 we have used the foreign species for cultivation and neglected our own. 

 We have fine black and red wild currants that merit cultivation. 



The blackberry is purely a new world plant and its great modifica- 

 tions have been brought about in the last 200 years. 



