Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-08-10
WANTED: APPLES or PED|CREH
Experiment Station, College Of
Agriculture, Gettings Results.
Busy mt Experiment six Yesrs.-Iook-
ing for Better saunshes md Straw
berries, Too--Inside Facts
for "Outsidcrs."

Is thore such a thing as breddod.
apple tree the same as bre1def COW or
horse That Is one of the big question:
which NJ. g. Cummings professor Of
horticulture in the College Of Agricul-
ture, is tackling; and its answer viii
mean not only step along toward this
solution of the moot problem whether
individual variations exist In any one
species OF fruit, but it will help Yer.
mont fruit men to improve their or.
chards.
Already some results have been OBJ
tanned at the experiment farm which the
department conducts. But some more
Of that later. Hubbard squash is thu
thing Of immediate practical interest.
The idea is TO discover how far we car
modify and control the quality and
quantity said Professor Cummings
The squashes are blossoming well and /
give hope Of being free from tina,
'sloshy." wet quality which is so com.
mon in many kinds Of squash raised in |
Vermont and elsewhere by seed seec.
ton we can increase or decrease the
yield" he explained.
Strawberries is n fruit which the sta
ton is experimenting with. Mr.. Cum
mings and his aids are breeding with
reference to developing a strain perfect
in regard to productivity" Already some|
results are being arrived at Vermont
soil is pretty we'll adapted for their Gull
ture, as Burlingtonians at least know.
and a measure Of success seems in|
sight
But apples. What's the matter With
Vermont apples, you ask? Well. there's|
something the matter with almost every
thing. and the College of Agriculture isl
trying to find ont what that something
is in each case Scion selection ex-|
perments" is the phrase the professor
uses expressing as it were the first
family" attribute winch species of
apples may have In his own words: wei
are trying to find ont whether absolutely
it pays to select grating wood from the|
highest yielding and best colored parent
trees or whether one may select
promiscuously from trees regardless oil
their quality and yielding propensities."
With cattle there is known to be such|
n thing as pedigree, and Nermont'sI
horses and cattle. too. have made names
| for Themselves all over the Union. Butt
( trees. have they that sort Of good
|
many nurserymen, says the professor,
that there is a value in pedigree culture.
This has not been established with fruit
trees. 1t has been established with regard
to some farm crops, but not with or
! chard crops"
Year after year. summer in and sum.
mer out, and fall after fall, for six years;
the workers at the station have been
scrutinizing those trees. Now they are
getting some results from their long
watching and waiting. Forty trees are
on trial and a few in each series Of seven
different varieties are now beginning to
do something on their own account. All
are of commercial grade and when the
finest quality of fruit is obtained there
will be no lack of markets and colored
paper is rs cheap here as anywhere.
No new-fangled species are being tried.
! They are all old d-bys-greeniugs and
northern spies, wealthies and fameuses.
These trees of course produce some Of
the best apples raised anywhere They
are big. hardy, juicy Of distinctive and
pleasant flavor and meaty. "Sloshy"
apples exist the same as "sloshy'
squashes, and Mr. Cummings has picked
out four species Of apples which, in his
opinion, are fitted for Vermont soil, likely
to be worth the attention bestowed upon
them and. generally speaking, per-
manently worth while
The department of horticulture is cast
| ing it's big eye over the states appa
crop, and has been doing So for years.
and its work is Of course shaped by the
esults which 1t hopes to obtain in the
/