RECORDING THE EXPERIMENTS 



graphic record of the exact size and form of the 

 fruit. The main character of the inside of each 

 fruit may be indicated, and by adding the date 

 of ripening, the time of its earliest and medium 

 ripening, the number of days it will remain in 

 good condition upon the tree, its keeping quality 

 when packed for shipment, and its susceptibility 

 to the ravages of insect pests and fungoid disease, 

 we have on a single sheet a fairly complete and 

 very valuable record, together with a graphic rep- 

 resentative of the size and form of the fruit itself. 



Record will be made in the same way in suc- 

 cessive seasons of fruit from the same tree, with 

 additional record of the appearance of any new 

 characters or qualities. Comparison of the rec- 

 ords will show whether the fruit on the young 

 trees has increased in size, improved in quality, 

 or varied in time of ripening from year to year. 

 Not unfrequently the record of the third year 

 shows a very considerable increase of good 

 qualities over the first. 



After a record has been kept for four or five 

 seasons, a fair estimate may be made of the gen- 

 eral value of this particular fruit. If in addition 

 we know the characteristics of the parent forms — 

 whether the ancestors were hardy or tender, and 

 the like — ^we are now in position to form a clear 

 judgment as to the probable value of the fruit. 



[269] 



