180 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



great changes. By taking small things man has produced fine fruits; 

 by taking wild things and bringing up and making something useful 

 out of them. This is what I mean by evolution and I can't think of 

 a better term now. 



Carpenter — This term "evolution" is all right. Take the 

 dahlia for example. Originally it was a small plant with a small 

 yellow flower. Look at them now ; large, strong growing plants fully 

 four feet high with flowers of almost every color. No one can deny 

 that there has been an evolution in this case. And this did not take 

 over fifty years either. Fifty years ago we had two or three varieties 

 of strawberries; to-day we have several hundred, larger berries, more 

 productive and generally better flavored. The bees have helped some 

 in bringing about these changes, too. We should plant crab seed fer- 

 tilized by apple, and try to produce still better varieties. What we 

 want now is an apple with flavor of the Northern Spy and hardiness 

 of the crab. 



Creighton — What I want is the truth. There has been too much 

 wholesale guessing done by learned men ; they guess such and such is 

 the case and then tell it for a fact beyond dispute ; I don't like that kind 

 of business, nor I don't like to have the Professor talk of "red rags" 

 just as if I were some wild animal to take offense at such .things. 

 There is no evidence that apples came from crabs; I don't believe 

 they did. I believe in survival of the fittest by artificial selection, 

 but not otherwise. Bull fruited 20,000 grapes and found but one 

 that was good enough to disseminate. We have established a bound 

 beyond which our fruits never go. I have fruited seedlings of the 

 Bellflower and Baldwin apples and in every case the fruit was inferior 

 to that of the parent; my experience is the same with the Bartlett 

 pear. 



Bessey — I must insist that I have not used the term natural selec- 

 tion. 



Creighton — Then I withdraw my objections. 



Bessey — And I withdraw the "red rag." 



Hartley — Bessey never meant natural selection, but I am glad 

 the mistake occurred, as it has afforded us much instruction and 

 amusement. [Laughter.] 



