RURAL NEW-YORKER 
655 
RURALISMS 
Plant Variation 
Recent articles in The R. X.-Y. on 
biul and twig mutants have been pro¬ 
foundly interesting to me. as I have re¬ 
cently discovered some remarkable genetic 
phenomena along this line. As stated by 
Mr. Moffitt. apple twig mutants contain 
an increased degree of pigment without 
any apparent change in the flavor or 
quality of the fruit. The Walbridge 
apple, which is green with dull red stripes, 
produces dark red mutants. In Denver, 
at least, we think this sport can super¬ 
sede the original variety, as reds are 
more popular than green or striped ones. 
In one case there appears to have been a 
violent disturbance of normal conditions, 
in all others the factors are absolutely 
normal. In rod sunflowers and' other 
flowers where these mutants fre¬ 
quently occur the conditions are regular. 
While testing violent climatic changes 
with Americana plums brought from the 
Mississippi Valley to a Colorado altitude 
of o.GOO feet, the variations have dis¬ 
played an increased amount of pigment, 
with greatly decreased vegetative factors. 
There are no apparent changes in the 
quality of the fruit or in the seed product. 
Frof. Shamel does not make an effort 
to advance a theory to account for this 
phenomenon ; he only takes advantage of 
a well-known fact in an effort to raise 
the standard of citrus fruits. Xo mate¬ 
rial for budding or grafting ought to be 
used in any part of the United States 
without following his example. The time 
has come for the parting of the ways be¬ 
tween the theories and the facts. Xo 
theory of genetics has yet passed the ten¬ 
tative stage. They appear to be all right 
as far as they go, but not one has yet 
crossed the going line. Mendelian segre¬ 
gation is quite limited in its application 
to practical genetics. De Vries mutants 
are probably nothing but heritable varie¬ 
ties. If heterozygous factors prevail as 
they do in apples, plums, corn and chick¬ 
ens, the identification of a real mutant 
is nothing short of the remotest guess. 
Me know of no evidence favoring the 
production of mutants by homozygous fac¬ 
tors. The production, blending and de¬ 
velopment of heritable variations is all 
the kind of evolution there is now or has 
been for 4,000 years. The plastic theory 
of the remote ages does not appeal to 
the credulity of a Missourian who has 
had GO years’ experience in testiug fruit 
tree seedlings and a few samples of ultra 
evolution made in Germany. During a 
GO years’ experience in testing fruit tree 
seedlings atavic reversion has been a 
thousandfold more in evidence that the 
so-called evolutionary process. 
We are now testing this principle with 
1.000 Americana plum seedlings. We 
have found only one that is equal to or 
better than the parent tree. As it is in¬ 
clined to be a dwarf it will hardly be able 
to go over tbe top in an open fight with 
the 000 more vigorous and in many cases 
worthless trees. Xatural selection, with¬ 
out superior mental guidance, is the 
dream of a distorted imagination. Sur¬ 
vival of the fittest is survival of the 
mightiest—nothing but German kultur. 
Survival of the strongest powers of re¬ 
sistance is the only kind of survival there 
is now or ever has been. While examin¬ 
ing the immense native plum orchards in 
the upper Mississippi Valley for 80 con¬ 
secutive years we uniformly found the 
best specimens at the verge of the thickets 
or hiding away in isolated places. Those 
that survived the competition of the jun¬ 
gle contained the rankest vegetal factors 
and bore the most worthless fruit. 
The mightiest oak is the survivor and 
because it makes the most and best lum¬ 
ber it also is the fittest, but since fruit, 
not lumber, is the purpose of the plum 
trees’ existence, the theory goes to pieces 
in -sheerest nonsense, a. jay c;arhisoy. 
Colorado. 
Think what that means in service to every 
farm owner! The knowledge that you can 
drive to town today—any day—and get an 
Oliver Plow or an Oliver part, and how im¬ 
portant such a service is this Spring when 
the ownership of a tractor and of a plow, 
even at the last moment, will insure the 
planting and harvesting of a crop from acres 
that otherwise would be unproductive. 
From the very beginning the Oliver effort has 
been to make the Oliver Institution something 
more than a distant and impersonal factory. The 
Oliver conception of its purpose is frankly this: 
birst To build a product that will stand up under 
the hardest usage, rendering honest service; and 
that will fit the seed bed best. Second—To place 
within immediate reach of every farm, a competent 
dealer. The duty of that dealer is not simply to 
sell Oliver tools. He must co-operate with the 
farm owner to the fullest extent. 
Oliver dealers help to bring to the farm owners in 
their territory a more complete knowledge of the 
tillage required by the different soil conditions, of 
plow designs, of the proper plow hitches, of tractor 
construction and operation—information that the 
Oliver Chilled Plow Works has gained from over 
sixty years’ experience in the manufacture and study 
of farm implements. 
For Oliver is selling, not just plows, but results— 
not just farm implements, but more bushels. 
The Oliver dealer wants you to be satisfied. He 
realizes that it is just as much to his interest as it 
is to yours that you receive the fullest service of 
which Oliver Implements are capable, and he is 
ready to co-operate with you to the limit in mak¬ 
ing sure that you receive that service. 
This Spring, therefore, wh^n you are buying a 
tractor, choose your plow and tractor tools carefully. 
Remember that plow service and dealer service 
in all their phases mean more bushels. 
There’s an Oliver Dealer near you. 
Oliver Chilled Plow Works 
South Bend, Indiana 
‘Oliver Plowed Fields 
Bring Greatest Yields’ 
OLIVER 
Tractor Implements 
Ground Mole Destroyer 
Ground moles nre eager for bread dough 
when other food is scarce or dead in the 
Spring. Make pills of the dough about 
as large as beaus, and put strychnine in 
center of each, well covered. Drop a few 
in each run, covering the hole completely. 
Disturb the ground as little as possible 
by usiug small round stick. This should 
be done early in the season to be effective. 
n. i, i*. 
Green Manure Crops Pay 
^ow Cover Crops between rows. Save escaping plant 
food,and fertilizer. Improvesoil texture. Increase humus 
17 Flat Teeth Cover Seed 
3-ft. Seeder 
. . Evenly sows clover, alfalfa, 
turnip, rape, timothy, rye, wheat, oats, buckwheat, etc. 
between all rowed crops. Covers seed to right depth. 
azwssr«- —- 
EUREKA MOWER CO.. Box 1200. Utica. N. Y. 
The Farmer His 
Own Builder 
By H. Armstrong Roberts 
A practical and 
bandy book of alL 
kinds of building 
information £ v o m. 
concrete to carpen¬ 
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For sale by 
THE 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
333 W. 30th St.. N. Y. 
