94 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Today the atmosphere is cleared; we have not a single plum or pear from 
Russia or elsewhere in Northern Europe that has any commercial value; not 
a cherry hardier, if as hardy, as the Early Richmond, and most of them 
shy and tardy bearers, and not a single apple out of the great number im- 
ported by the Department and the Iowa Agricultural College that is as well 
adapted and valuable as some already produced by ourselves. 
The problem of adapting fruits to our climate is now almost exclusively 
one of breeding; selecting the best seed, from the best specimens, of the 
best plants or trees, from which to raise improved varieties in all parts of our 
territory; both by natural selection, and the highest skill known to the 
hybridizer. Without doubt, some varieties or seedlings will be found far 
better to select seed from for improvement than others. 
The problem of breeding improved fruits is undoubtedly somewhat more 
intricate than that of improving animals. And yet there is a striking analogy 
in the power of individual animals and plants to transmit their qualities. 
The Concord grape is a good illustration of this fact. It is so cosmopolitan 
in its character, so nearly adapted to wide variations in soil and climate, that 
we would naturally 'expect it to become the parent of a valuable family of 
grapes. This grape is but little less conspicuous among fruits than the old 
Morgan horse among animals in its power to produce superior kinds. Seed- 
lings of Whitney No. 20 crab are about as typical of the parent form of 
tree and appearance of leaf, as a like number of grafted trees of any variety; 
the seedlings are very hardy, fruit of an increased size, and following closely 
in season and in texture of flesh the parent apple. 
The Brier Sweet, a seedling of the old Large Red Siberian and an un- 
doubted hybrid with the Bailey Sweet apple, is so persistent in transmitting 
its upright form of tree and its color of bark and leaves, that its seedlings 
seem almost like a variety; with its general markings of fruit and texture of 
flesh. But a notable exception is seen in its hereditary power when the pollen 
of the Pound Sweet apple is used on it. In this cross the typical upright 
form of the Brier Sweet was completely broken up in ten out of eleven 
seedlings, and a long-limbed, and somewhat angular habit produced. But 
the Brier Sweet persisted in the general size and shading of leaves and color 
of bark, and I shall expect to see it in the coloring of fruit also. 
The Wolf River when crossed on Brier Sweet gave quite as interesting 
results in tree, though of far different appearance; but a strong impress of 
the latter is left on a majority of the seedlings. 
The Hamilton crab, a beautiful native wild apple found at Morning Sun, 
Iowa, when used as a pollenizer of the German Borsdorf apple, has given 
results in tree that are both noticeable and interesting to the horticulturist. 
In three instances there is scarcely a trace of the native left. The evolution 
of the apple in the northwest is proceeding along the following lines, either 
by chance or scientific means: 
First, By crossing the American and Russian apples. 
Second, By blending the best developed Siberian hybrids with the best 
adapted American and Russian sorts. 
Third, Development of the pure American apples from hardiest varieties, 
or crosses in the same family as between Perry and Golden Russet, and 
Fameuse and some of its best seedlings. 
Fourth, By hybridizing the native crab or wild apple with the best Ameri- 
can sorts. 
