e qualities of
their fruits in several ways. The early pioneers of our country selected
the best fruits from seedling trees. Chance seedlings that were found in
pastures, by roadsides, or possibly in some out-of-the-way place,
selected because of some special quality or group of qualities, still
dominate our commercial plantings of fruits and nuts. Several of the
apple varieties to be found in the market today are from these chance
seedlings.

In more recent years some of our agricultural colleges have been
breeding fruits. Such breeding has given us several of our more
promising named varieties. In this way a great improvement has been
brought about in our fruits.

Environment too appears to have played an important part in making
changes in fruits and nuts. Nuts that are extremely hardy in the more
northern latitudes, appear to have developed this hardiness gradually
throughout many generations. Because of this quality we are now able to
select varieties that are most likely to succeed in any particular
locality.

More rapid and satisfactory methods of improving our fruits and nuts
have been brought about through breeding. This development of the
science of plant breeding has made it possible to blend the good
qualities of two seedlings into a new variety. Man does not have to
follow nature's slow hit-and-miss method of developing more desirable
qualities in her products. Controlled breeding, as brought about by man,
produces faster and more satisfactory results. Man's improvement over
nature has come about through his choice of the qualities to be blended,
and his ability to bring together two parents from widely separated
parts of the earth, if necessary.

Besides breeding, we are able also to use some of the mutations or bud
sports to improve our nuts as well as fruits. Although our progress in
improving nuts may not yet be as spectacular as cross-breeding with
apples, bud selection has already modified the list of our commercial
varieties.

One of the first requisites in bud selection is so thorough a knowledge
of the variety that any departure from the type will be detected. Then
it will be necessary to start propagation to determine whether the
variation was caused by some environmental factor, or is really a sport
which can be perpetuated by vegetative propagation. You may wonder if
many of our nut growers know nut varieties well enough to detect any but
the most obvious sports. Nut improvement through b