ON SPECIFIC NEEDS 



There is one additional hint that it might not 

 be amiss to emphasize. In selecting seed for 

 planting, it is desirable, of course, to select the 

 largest and best specimens. But it should be re- 

 called that the real test of quality in a tree is not 

 the production of exceptional individual fruits, 

 but the size of the average fruit that it bears. 



Exceptional conditions of nutrition may cause 

 a single apple to grow very large on a limb that 

 as a rule produces only fruit of meager propor- 

 tions. Seedlings from this exceptional fruit do 

 not inherit the exceptional quality of their parent. 



It is the germ plasm of the tree itself that 

 counts. Seed from a very small apple of a good 

 variety will produce better offspring than the seed 

 of a very much larger individual specimen of a 

 poor variety; so it is far better to select the poorest 

 fruit of a good variety rather than the best of an 

 ordinary variety. 



This principle should be borne in mind in un- 

 dertaking plant development of any kind, not 

 merely with reference to orchard fruits. It is the 

 inherent properties of the plant organism as a 

 whole that will determine the average character 

 of the fruit. 



Breeding for Quality 



As to the special qualities of fruit that call for 

 improvement, details, of course, differ with dif- 



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