<Pre  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
!  167 
Fruit  Tree  Bud  Selection  in  California 
Part  II 
SHALL  WE  HAVE  SELECTED  ROOTSTOCKS? 
— This  question  does  not  imply  kinds  and  vari¬ 
eties  to  meet  varying  conditions,  but  quality.  We 
all  know  that  there  is  variation  in  any  given  block 
of  seedling  trees,  no  matter  where  or  how  grown. 
Now  those  trees  in  nursery  row  that  show  the  most 
growth,  possess  stamina  and  virility,  will  invariably 
make  the  best  trees.  If  these  are  budded  to  selected 
buds  cut  from  record  performance  ti’ees,  and  prop¬ 
erly  grown,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  nurseryman  so 
producing  his  stock  has  done  about 
everything  in  his  power  to  produce  and 
deliver  a  profitable  tree  when  placed 
in  orchard  form.  And  in  large  meas¬ 
ure  this  is  just  what  the  advanced  nur¬ 
serymen  are  trying  to  do  in  California. 
They  are  practicing  bud  and  rootstock 
selection  with  the  firm  conviction,  as 
lias  been  demonstrated  with  citrus 
fruits  under  the  direction  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  that 
it  tends  to  insure  (1)  maintenance  of 
type.  (2)  quality  and  size  of  fruit,  (3) 
yield  of  fruit  and  character  of  tree, 
and  (4)  takes  some  of  the  chance  out 
of  fruit  culture  and  puts  into  it  a  lit¬ 
tle  more  science  that  leads  to  better 
trees  and  better  production. 
AN  AUTHORITATIVE  BUT  NEG¬ 
ATIVE  VOICE. — -While  visiting  some 
of  the  representative  nurseries  and 
fruit  growers  of  New  York  State  it  was 
my  privilege  and  great  pleasure  to 
have  come  into  personal  contact  with 
U.  P.  Hedrick,  of  the  Agricultural  Ex¬ 
periment  'Station  at  Geneva,  with 
whom  I  had  an  animated  discussion  on 
bud  selection.  Having  accomplished  a 
great  work  in  the  publication  of  books 
on  the  pears,  plums,  cherries  and 
grapes  of  New  York  (all  of  which  are 
destined  to  become  classics)  and  being 
recognized  as  an  authority  on  fruit 
culture.  I  was  interested  to  know  his 
opinions  on  the  subject,  which  are  at 
variance  with  those  entertained  and 
promulgated  by  Mr.  Shamel.  Mr.  Hed¬ 
rick  is  firmly  of  the  opinion  that  the 
practical  difficulties  in  growing  trees 
from  selected  buds  (granting  for  the 
moment  that  improved  nursery  trees 
may  be  so  obtained)  are  almost  insu¬ 
perable.  He  states  his  position  briefly 
in  the  following  numbered  paragraphs: 
sent  it  to  be.  In  other  words,  they  are  attempting  to 
foist  something  on  the  public  which  is  supposed  to 
be  superior,  while  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  nothing 
of  the  kind. 
3.  It  is  the  experience  of  those  who  have  taken 
buds  from  bearing  trees  that  the  resulting  nursery 
plants  lack  vigor,  and  remain  weaklings  for  several 
years.  I  have  been  cutting  buds  from  record  bear¬ 
ing  trees  consistently  for  over  35  years,  and  I  can 
say  truthfully  that  trees  so  grown,  on  coming  into 
1.  A  bearing  tree  surpassingly  good 
in  one  quality  may  be  deficient  in 
others.  A  tree  bearing  large  apples 
might  be  unproductive,  subject  to  fungi 
or  insects,  lacking  in  vigor  or  hardi¬ 
ness,  or  short-lived.  Selecting  for  one 
quality  will  not  do.  The  more  quali¬ 
ties,  the  more  difficult  the  tree  to  find 
and  the  more  complicated  is  selection. 
It  seems  to  me  this  statement  is  too 
drastic  and  so  negative  in  character  as 
to  the  practical  application  of  bud  se¬ 
lection  that  it  creates  a  wrong  impres¬ 
sion  in  the  mind  of  the  reader.  That  it 
is  untenable  is  definitely  answered  by 
the  experiments  with  the  Improved 
French  prune  and  other  instances  that 
might  be  cited.  If  what  is  said  is  ac¬ 
cepted  at  its  face  value,  we  would  have 
to  concede  that  selection  in  fruits  is  surrounded  by 
so  many  insurmountable  obstacles  that  all  effort  to 
improve  existing  varieties  is  a  waste  of  time. 
2.  The  selected  buds  must  be  worked,  in  the  case 
of  tree  fruits,  on  roots  that  are  variable.  To  have 
“pedigreed”  trees  it  is  necessary  to  have  “pedigreed” 
roots  as  well  as  “pedigreed”  tops.  Here  we  again 
bump  against  me  expression  “pedigreed”  trees, 
which  is  certainly  misleading.  As  already  explained, 
bud  selection  is  something  different.  Prof.  Hedrick 
is  too  sincere  a  worker  in  behalf  of  better  things  in 
horticulture  to  be  accused  of  not  believing  in  the  bet¬ 
terment  of  our  fruits.  All  this  talk  about  “pedi¬ 
greed”  trees  is  bunk.  What  he  fears  is  that  nursery¬ 
men  will  use  the  word  “pedigreed”  as  an  incentive 
to  induce  their  customers  to  buy  something  which 
they  (the  nurserymen)  know  is  not  what  they  repre¬ 
Here  is  a  Wayne  Co.,  N.  Y.  fruit  grower  reclaiming  a  swarm  of  bees  which  made 
a  temporary  resting  place  in  a  pear  tree.  Well,  he  is  well  dressed  for  the  job. 
Cult  Potatoes.  Fig  499.  See  Next  Page 
bearing,  have  stood  the  test  sufficiently  to  verify  the 
truth  of  the  statement  that  bud  selection  does  per¬ 
petuate  type  and  character  of  fruit  and  bearing  ca¬ 
pacity  of  the  tree  from  which  it  was  cut.  There  are 
other  nurserymen  in  California  who  have  followed 
along  the  same  lines  with  similar  experiences. 
4.  If  pedigreed  trees  become  the  vogue,  tree-grow¬ 
ing  must  become  a  petty  business.  Climate  and  en¬ 
vironment  would  permit  nurserymen  who  are  grow¬ 
ing  pedigreed  stock  to  propagate  only  a  half  dozen 
varieties  of  any  fruit.  Not  more  than  this  number 
of  sorts  is  so  pre-eminently  adapted  to  any  one  geo 
graphical  region  as  to  give  good  mother  trees.  The 
word  “pedigreed,”  as  applied  to  trees,  should  be 
eliminated  from  the  nurseryman’s  vocabulary.  To 
place  bud  selection  in  the  discard  would  be  an  ad¬ 
mission  that  we  should  be  satisfied  with  what  we 
have  and  not  attempt  to  improve  varieties  to  not 
only  meet  varying  soil  and  climatic  conditions,  but 
to  better  quality  and  yield  of  fruit. 
5.  Fruit  trees  are  not  sufficiently  well  fixed  in 
their  characters  to  make  selection  from  single  “best” 
trees  worth  while,  even  should  their  characters  be 
transmissible.  Thus,  trees  in  many  cases  do  not 
show  their  best  attributes  until  late  in  life;  or,  to 
the  contrary,  fail  as  they  grow  older ;  or  are  affected 
for  better  or  worse  by  moisture,  food,  or  physical 
conditions  of  soil  in  certain  seasons ; 
or  insects  and  fungi  may  give  them  a 
variable  and  uncertain  standing.  A 
nurseryman  with  the  best  intentions 
might  thus  propagate  from  a  prepos¬ 
sessing  tree  only  to  find  later  that  he 
and  his  customers  had  been  deceived. 
A  SWEEPING  STATEMENT.— The 
view  expressed  may  arise  from  facts 
applying  to  an  orchard  in  the  Eastern 
States,  but  certainly  would  not  be 
borne  out  by  experiences  in  connection 
with  orcharding  in  California.  If,  to 
illustrate  my  point,  we  were  to  con¬ 
tinue  to  cut  buds  from  the  Improved 
French  prune  orchard  (which  has  been 
under  my  observation  for  so  many 
years)  when  the  trees  showed  signs  of 
deteriorating,  it  would  be  retrogression 
and  almost  a  crime;  but,  on  the  con¬ 
trary,  if  we  cut  our  buds  from  the  pro¬ 
geny  of  the  original  trees  which  by  the 
vigor  of  their  growth,  the  size  and 
quality  of  the  fruit  produced,  show  that 
they  are  worthy  successors,  we  would 
be  doing  a  real  service  to  the  fruit  in¬ 
dustry,  and  at  the  same  time  elevate 
the  nursery  business. 
THE  BURDEN  OF  PROOF.— Her¬ 
itable  variations  can  be  told  only  by 
growing  the  parts  bearing  them — by 
studying  the  offspring,  not  the  ances¬ 
tor;  by  looking  forward,  not  backward. 
This  is  impossible  in  the  nursery.  In 
conclusion,  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon 
those  who  advocate  pedigreed  trees, 
for  the  present  practices  of  propagat¬ 
ing  fruit  plants  are  justified  by  the 
precedents  of  "enturies.  Experiment¬ 
ers  in  this  field  encourage  us  to  believe 
that  they  may  sometimes  illumine  the 
darkness,  but  one  cannot  see  by  the 
lights  they  have  thus  far  brought. 
“The  assertion  that  outstrips  the  evi¬ 
dence  is  a  crime”  in  this  case,  as  in 
any  other.  Let  us  have  real,  precise, 
abundant  evidence  before  demanding  a 
reform  that  will  revolutionize  nursery 
practices.  Too  true;  but  forget  the 
past.  Let  us  not  for  a  minute  wrap  a 
mantle  around  ourselves  and  blindly 
set  aside  the  honest  purposes  of  any¬ 
one  trying  to  put  more  virility  in  our 
trees,  enhance  the  quality  by  increas¬ 
ing  the  pulp  and  lessening  the  pit  in 
stone  fruits,  by  creating  better  types 
and  larger  yielding  capacity,  by  fixing 
desirable  types  in  product,  and  robust, 
sturdy  trees,  or  any  other  good  quality 
that  will  render  orcharding  more  prof¬ 
itable. 
JUDGING  BY  ANCESTRY.  —  The 
only  guide  that,  we  can  judge  the  grow¬ 
ing  tree  by  is  its  ancestry.  We  do  maintain  type  in 
many  economic  plants  by  the  process  of  budding  and 
grafting;  and  we  do  (to  a  considerable  extent) 
maintain  quality  of  fruit  and  bearing  capacity  of 
record  performance  trees  by  limiting  our  bud  sup¬ 
plies  to  only  such  specimens.  The  only  way  that  this 
is  feasible  is  to  study  the  host  tree  (ancestor)  from 
which  the  bud  is  derived,  with  a  view  to  reproduc¬ 
ing  the  same  character  in  the  nursery  tree,  subject 
to  more  or  less  modification  by  the  after  treatment 
and  environment  it  may  be  subjected  to  when  plant¬ 
ed  in  orchard  form.  Conditions  being  to  its  liking, 
the  selected  bud  will  carry  to  a  noticeable  degree 
the  commercial  values  of  the  trees  from  which  the 
bud  was  cut.  More  than  this  can  hardly  be  expected 
“  —  condition  to  wild,  all  plaut  life 
