THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
I 
95 
vegetables which are to maintain our agriculture and all 
of these other things which rest upon the foundation of 
our agriculture. 
To he of Greatest Benefit to this Region the Work must 
be Done in this Region 
One matter of importance, as 1 see it, and one reason 
why the work which you are doing is signilicanl, is this; 
that the plant materials and particularly the fruit 
materials which you need to use here must be largely 
developed here; or if they are brought in from other 
regions they must he thoroughly tested here, for the pur¬ 
pose of showing to what extent they are adapted to this 
environment. Many varieties which are valuable and 
excellent in other countries or in other parts of this 
country cannot do well under our climatic conditions. 
Our best fruits in the future will be originated here. 
Illustrating this point I wish to call your attention to 
the apple list for Minnesota and adjoining territory. I 
took the trouble just a few weeks ago to send out some 
circular letters of inquiry in the Mississippi Valley. 1 
started out with the idea of including the territory from 
Lake Michigan to the Missouri River hut I didn’t get the 
responses from Wisconsin that I desired. However, the 
responses which I did get represent, I think, pretty well 
the territory from Dubuque, Iowa, up the River to Min¬ 
neapolis and then westward to the Missouri River. I 
have taken a few representative nurserymen in that 
region and have asked them to give me a list of the kind 
of trees that they have been propagating for the past five 
years; which in a general way, I take it, means the kind 
that the people here are planting most. Possibly some 
of the kinds which show up now in small numbers may 
later develop to greater importance. Doubtless newer 
kinds have not yet come to their full recognition. 
Imagine, if you can, the apple trees in this entire region 
which have'been planted during the last five years com¬ 
bined into one orchard a thousand miles long. The 
reports from these nurserymen as to what they have been 
propagating indicate that in this thousand miles of apple 
orchard the varieties would stand about as follows: 
220 miles Wealthy 35 miles Anisim 
118 
“ Duchess of Oldenburg 
26 “ 
Yellow Transparent 
117 
“ Northwestern Greening 
22 “ 
Longfield 
93 
“ Patten Greening 
21 “ 
Iowa Beauty 
69 
“ Hibernal 
20 “ 
Jewell Winter 
40 
“ Okalena 
19 . “ 
McIntosh 
39 
“ Malinda 
19 “ 
Wolf River 
142 
“ other varieties in smaller numbers. ' 
Examine the above list as to the origin of the varieties 
named. With practically but one exception they have 
either originated in the region extending from Lake 
Michigan westward to the Missouri River, or they are 
Russians. 
First on the list is Wealthy which I believe to be a 
cross between some red Siberian crab apple and the 
Rambo. Look at its basin and note the resemblance in 
color markings and in form to the Rambo. I suggest 
that Mr. Elmer Reeves, who is here, be asked to make a 
statement of what he knows about the real origin of the 
Wealthy that you may place in on record in the report 
of this Society as a correction of the old statement that 
it was grown from seed brought from Maine. 
At any rate whatever its parentage the Wealthy orig- 
inaled Irom seed grown by Peter Gideon at his home in 
Excelsior, near Minneapolis. 
Northwestern Greening, the next on the list, originated 
in Waupaca County, Wisconsin. 
Patten Greening, the next, is from Duchess of Olden¬ 
burg and planted at Charles City, Iowa, by Mr. C. G. 
Patten, who, I am glad to see here with us today. 
Hibernal is a Russian. 
Okabena, originated here in Minnesota from seed of 
Duchess of Oldenburg. 
Malinda was brought as a little seedling tree from 
Northern Vermont to Minnesota where it was first intro¬ 
duced into cultivation. 
Anisin is a Russian as also are the next two on the 
list Yellow Transparent and Longfield. 
Iowa Reauty originated with Mr. C. G. Patten in 
Northern Iowa from the Golden Russett. 
Jewell Winter originated in north-central Iowa, McIn¬ 
tosh originated in Canada. Wolf River should be 
classed be classed with the Russians. It originated in 
classed with the Russians. It originated in Wisconsin. 
Evidently it is a seedling of the Russian apple Alexander. 
Out of this list of 14 best apples for this region, five 
were imported from Russia and the others, excepting Mc¬ 
Intosh, were developed here and most of them have the 
blood of Siberian crabs or Russian apples, if apples can 
be said to have blood lines of descent. 
The point I am trying to make is that of all the vari¬ 
eties which we now have those which are best for Minne¬ 
sota are kinds which either have been introduced from 
Russia or which have been developed here and the best 
of them have been developed here. 
We must do right here the fruit breeding work which 
is to benefit us. We must develop our improved varie¬ 
ties here, out of the plant materials already here and 
any others which we can gather through the help of 
Professor Hansen and such other explorers from any 
part of the earth where good and useful plant material 
may be found. It is on this improved material that we 
are to build our most successful horticulture in the 
future. How is this done? 
Methods of Improving Plants 
The lines along which plant breeding can be developed 
are indicated by the methods used in propagating plants. 
We know that propagation of plants is either by sexual 
or by asexual methods. Take the apple for illustration. 
We have propagation from seed. This may represent 
either one or two parent varieties. Then there is prop¬ 
agation by means of budding or grafting which signi¬ 
fies the perpetuation of that particular variety by division 
into separate parts; it is simply a continuation of the 
original individual from which the buds or cions were 
taken. And so, although apple varieties do not come 
true from seed, we may multiply the trees of any variety 
indefinitely by propagating its buds or cions. 
Again we have the development of new types from 
seed as the result of hybridizing, i. e. crossing the 
parents to produce the seed. 
Very seldom do we have, but we may have, the orig¬ 
ination of new varieties assexually as graft hybrids. 
In other words, there is such a thing as a graft hybrid. 
