ON THE POSSIBILITIES 



products by curbing their useless ones, that it 

 would not be possible to list them here. 



But, aside from these, and in the same category, 

 there are countless other new improvements to 

 be wrought. 



The stoneless plum points the way to a new 

 world of fruits in which the stony or shell-like 

 covering of the seeds has been bred away. 



The coreless apple, pear and quince, with 

 sheathless seeds growing compactly near the top, 

 out of the way — these are all within the range of 

 accomplishment. 



Seedless raspberries, blackberries, gooseber- 

 ries, currants, with the energy saved reinvested 

 in added size or better flavor, call for some one 

 to bring them about. Seedless grapes we have had 

 for more than a century; yet by a certain cross 

 which Mr. Burbank will suggest in the grape 

 chapter, he believes that they can be doubled in 

 size and much improved in flavor. Seedless figs, 

 even, might be made, but these could be counted 

 no improvement; for the seeds of the fig give the 

 fruit its flavor. 



Seedless watermelons might mean more work 

 than the result would repay, but navel water- 

 melons, with seeds arranged as in the navel orange, 

 would, likely enough, yield a result commensurate 

 with the efi'ort required to produce them. 



[257] 



