18 
THE APPLE. 
of delivering cultivators from the risks of being misled by the wrong 
stocks, and also of superseding to a great extent at least the necessity of 
root pruning. 
II.—By Seeds. 
Apples are still largely raised from seeds for the multiplication of 
stocks, and also, but very sparingly, for the origination of new and 
improved varieties. Though it is a singular fact that the majority of our 
best modern apples have been chance seedlings found in woods, hedge-^ 
rows, or on the sites of old orchards, the raising of seedlings expressly 
for the origin of better varieties has been but little practised. The 
custom of sowing the seeds of cider apples in bulk for the manufacture of 
stocks has not favoured improvement, while the practice of grafting seed¬ 
ling stocks unproved renders it probable that many a stock may carry a 
head inferior to itself. 
To insure a fair amount of success in the raising of superior apples 
from seeds, it is needful to choose both parents with care, and to prove 
before discarding or grafting the seedlings. This need involve but little 
loss of time ; it would cause no loss of material, for the young seedlings 
would be as good stocks after proving as before. By root pruning, graft¬ 
ing, and other means to hasten fertility, the seedlings might soon be 
forced to reveal their true characters by bearing fruit. The first fruits 
might not in all cases be perfect, but they would be sufficiently so to 
exhibit the chief characteristics of the variety, and to show whether 
or not it was worthy of a further trial; if not, the seedling would at 
once be used as a stock for other and better varieties. 
The first step to success in the raising of seedlings must be taken as 
soon as the trees are in fiower. The stamens of the seed-bearing variety 
must be carefully clipped out, to prevent self-fertilisation. The blossoms 
thus denuded of their male appendages should also be protected with 
thin gauze or muslin from the infiuence of the wind and the visits of 
bees or other winged insects. These precautions are absolutely necessary 
to prevent the flowers from being chance fertilised. The latter mostly 
leads to degeneracy rather than improvement, and in either case it baffies 
the design of the cultivator. When the pistil reaches perfection the 
pollen of the male parent should be carefully collected, either on tissue 
paper, or, better still, on a camel hair pencil, and immediately applied to 
the pistil. It is well to repeat this process on two or three consecutive 
days, to make sure that the ovary is fecundated. To prevent the risk 
of mixing the pollen of different varieties, a separate pencil should be used 
for each two apples the cultivator wishes to cross. ) 
