PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 205 



In all my top-grafting (and I have done a good deal of it) I have 

 always been careful to cut scions from the tree that produced the finest 

 fruit of its variety, growth and all other characters considered. With 

 some varieties but little change is noticeable, but in others the influence 

 of the stock is often considerable, and I feel like taking the Delicious 

 . example. In the orchard are about one hundred top-grafted trees 

 of that variety bearing, and the scions were all from a single tree. Of 

 the tree propagated from it. a few are certainly highly colored, better 

 in form and more juicy — finer apples in every way. Others are a 

 dingy, pale color; some more elongated; some are inferior in quality; 

 in fact, scarcely two trees bear fruits that are identical in all their 

 characteristics. In most of the trees, however, the change is very slight. 

 From my observation and experience I think the Delicious very sus- 

 ceptible to this influence: that is, particular in its associations as an 

 apple of its high character has a right to be. for it certainly is the 

 1 ' Queen of its Kind." 



I will give another example in the same line : A neighbor who planted 

 one of the oldest orchards in this mountain section, found his old 

 Grindstone (American Pippin) of little value, and about twenty years 

 ago (the trees were about thirty years old) top-grafted them from a 

 fine strain of Ben Davis. When they came into bearing, the fruit was 

 neither Ben Davis nor Grindstone. It seemed to partake of the charac- 

 teristic of both, but so blended that no one not knowing the facts could 

 tell what it was. It had the flattish. round form of the Grindstone 

 with the brighter stripes of the Ben Davis, only medium in size and 

 worthless in quality. That was the most evident and best example of 

 the influence of stock upon scion I have ever seen. 



We explain such changes as the congeniality of stock to scion. But 

 what is it, and how is it produced? What modifies the plant's organi- 

 zation that makes one of the same species congenial, and the other not ? 



There is another class of fruit changes that we are likely to hear more 

 of in a scientific way in the near future. The modifications of many 

 varieties of fruits by our Pacific coast influences have attracted atten- 

 tion for many years. We all recognize the fact, but I think it has not 

 as yet so fixed our thought and investigation as its importance deserves. 

 Many varieties of apples when grown here are scarcely recognizable 

 when compared with the same as grown in their old habitat of the 

 Eastern States. Our soil and climatic influences seem to develop some 

 of the varieties into almost new and greater forms. Many of our local 

 seedlings seem to have something inherent in their character that is 

 distinct J n ~\Yestern. Besides our favorable natural conditions, I think, 

 the converging and commingling of all the different types that have 

 been heretofore comparatively isolated is producing varieties that in 

 development will give us new and higher types of all our fruits. 



I know that such observed facts in nature, and that we meet only 

 once in a while, leads. off into a line of speculation I am not scientific 

 enough to explain or give them any particular application. All the 

 natural laws and their operation w T e know contribute to the development 

 and comfort of life. We have no reason to think that the more obscure 

 ones, when better known and under our control, will prove any the less 

 useful. With all the accumulated knowledge that has come to us out 

 of the wisdom of the ages, we have no reason to think we have fathomed 



