FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
43 
then waxing. We operated on in this 
way, making quite a number of apple, 
pear, and plum. In the apple we used Ben 
Davis as a foundation and to this variety 
we united Johnathan, Wine sap and 
Grime’s Golden, our object being to infuse 
better quality into the Ben Davis. We 
planted all with care and watched results, 
eight per cent grew, and from the ap¬ 
pearance of the leaves we think we have 
at least three crosses out of loo in the 
apple and we are awaiting their fruiting 
with interest. We are much encouraged 
from the fact that one plum tree’out of 
twenty, crossed with Wild Goose and 
Abundance, fruited last year and shows a 
hybrid, or cross between the two. 
We shall continue our experiment, feel¬ 
ing confident that in hybrid grafting and 
budding we have the means to greatly im¬ 
prove our fine fruits, flowers, and shrubs. 
We shall select our scions and buds only 
from the most healthy and vigorous trees 
and plants and those that produce the larg¬ 
est and best fruit. Our fine American 
herds have been brought up to their pres¬ 
ent high standard by the most careful 
selecting and breeding for generations. 
We believe that in a similar manner our 
American horticulture must be improved.” 
I think it will also be of interest to con¬ 
sider the experience of Mr. O. W. Black- 
nail of Kittrell, N. C., with natural varia¬ 
tions of fruits. He says: “I will give 
my experience as to variation during the 
past forty years of three well known fruits, 
those are the Winesap apple, the Scupper- 
nong grape, and the Wilson’s Albany 
strawberry. Forty years ago the Wine- 
sap apples grown in this neighborhood 
were comparatively uniform in size and 
color. Since then a great many trees have 
been brought in and planted from widely 
separated nurseries in different parts of the 
United States. The result has been a wide 
variation in the size and color of the fruit; 
probably this variation has extended to 
the flavor and also to the shape of the ap¬ 
ple. But of this I am not sure. I am 
only stating what I know to be positively 
true. Then as to the Scuppernong grape: 
A very few if any Scuppernong grape 
vines have ever been brought into this 
neighborhood. It is fairly certain that 
nearly if not all, of the many vines now 
fruiting have originated from a few old 
vines growing in the neighborhood time 
out of mind, many of them certainly a cen¬ 
tury old. Still there is a variation in the 
size, quality, and time of ripening of the 
fruit of different vines which is most strik¬ 
ing. Some bear fruit fully twice as large 
as others and that when growing side by 
side, some have thick hulls, and some thin, 
some ripen at the beginning of September 
and some not till the last of October. Now 
it is barely possible that the most dis¬ 
similar vines may be seedlings. But this 
is extremely improbable, as according to 
my experience when the Scuppernong seed 
is planted it reverts to the black grape 
similar to the Muscadine or Bullace, the 
wild parent of the Scuppernong. But 
even admitting that the widest variation is 
the result of vines grown from seed, there 
is still such a wide variation in the fruit of 
vines known to be grown from cuttings 
that it fully establishes the case in point.” 
In order to give a comprehensive view 
of the field, opportunities and principles 
of fruit improvement I have given these 
brief extracts from the writings and ut¬ 
terances of men who are acknowledged to 
be authorities and experts in their several 
lines of effort. In the Citrus it seems to 
me there is great range for variations, and 
I would call attention in particular to one 
