THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
39 
radically dominating influence in cross-breeding. In several crosses of 
Grimes with the Patten, the Grimes has been strongly marked. In a seed- 
ling of the Olderburg, crossed with the Grimes, the color of the former 
"was entirely supplanted by the golden color of the Grimes. In the origi- 
nation of the Patten, the Oldenburg transmitted almost none of its color. 
Another seedling originating with the Patten, from the two specimens of 
Oldenburg before mentioned in this paper, gave every appearance of a 
Tolman (Sweet) cross; none of the Oldenburg color, form or quality remained. 
Of ten seedlings of the Malinda, all have been striped or colored except 
one, and that one judged both by tree and fruit is an inbred seedling. One 
of them a cross with Ben Davis, is like the latter in form and color. Two 
seedlings of White Pearmain pollinated with Black Annette are both dark 
colored apples and entirely changed in form from that of the Pearmain. 
They are like the Annette. Silas Wilson, a seedling of the Ben Davis, is 
changed in color, and quality, and much in form. The seed originated in 
an orchard of Ben Davis and Jonathan. It is an undoubted cross wherein 
the Jonathan greatly pre-dominates both in tree and fruit. 
The Ben Davis seems to lack stamina in tree, and has, with but rare 
exceptions, imparted little quality to its seedlings. It is lacking in that 
hardiness which is essential to the production of seedlings that are adapted 
to our Northwestern climate. In nearly every one of forty or more seedlings 
of Patten crossed with this variety, the trees showing in bark, leaf and 
growth, the characteristics of the Ben Davis, are mostly tender in tree, and 
strange to note, are generally tardy and sparse bearers. A. few of them 
bear fruit with the color character of the parent, and are finer grained and 
of better quality. The Patten is so hardy, so vigorous and so prolific of 
large sized fruit, that it has dominated in a marked degree in these crosses ; 
but its prepotency has been considerably less marked in its crosses with 
the Black Annette, a winter apple of good quality. The Patten has, in its 
crosses with these two varieties, produced a surprisingly large proportion 
of large to very large, attractive looking varieties; some of them good to 
very good in quality. A few of them are also good keeping apples. 
Another undesirable feature of the Ben Davis in the breeding work, is 
that too many trees representing the Ben Davis type seem to have a ten- 
dency to produce knobs or protuberances either on tree or fruit, or on both. 
This excrescent character is prominent in what is an undoubted cross of 
the Ben Davis with the Mercer Crab. In two select seedlings out of four 
of the Mercer, this peculiar knobing is very noticeable, number one is colored 
even more highly than the Ben Davis, and resembles it strongly in the 
basin. It is a fairly good keeper, finer grained, and somewhat better quality 
than the Ben Davis, but knobbed on both tree and fruit. Number three is 
as large as Ben Davis, somewhat colored, and decidedly better in quality, 
but the body of the tree has numerous knobs or excrescences growing upon 
it. These two crosses have without doubt, the same parentage. The fourth 
tree also bears a colored apple. This last experiment, it appears to me, 
gives additional proof of the hybrid character of this purely green represen- 
tative Native Crab, as classified by Dr. Bailey. Were it not a hybrid, no 
such apples could be produced by it. The Soulard hybrid, originating here 
