M ICHIGAN
OF
AGRICULTURE
SOUTH
HAVEN
STATE
AND
C O L L E G E
APPLIED
EXPERIMENT
S outh
SCIENCE
STATION
Ha v e n , M ichigan
November 16, 1944,
D irector H .P .S tu ck ey ,
Georgia Expert .ent S ta tio n ,
Experim ent, G eorgia.
Dear D ire c to r Stuckey:
I have your l e t t e r of November 13th, asking fo r
inform ation as to our use o f E lb e rta in our peach
breeding work.
I am s o rry to say th a t ’lb e r ta has not been a good
parent in our work. We used i t to a co n sid erab le
ex ten t when we f i r s t s ta r te d our peach breeding work
about tw enty years ago, but o b tain ed no prom ising
seed lin g s where i t was used as one p a re n t. C onsequently,
in re c e n t years we have not been usin g i t .
J.H .H ale has been a v ery good p a re n t fo r u s. No one
knows e x a c tly the paren tag e of *i.H.Hale, as i t was a
chance s e e d lin g . However, some th in k th a t E lb e rta
might have been one of i t s p a re n ts. However, i t seems
to me th a t th a t is pure c o n je c tu re .
Another e x c e lle n t paren t in our b reeding work has been
South Haven, which o rig in a te d by chance in an orchard
of S t. John peaches near South Haven. A gain, no one
is sure of i t s p a re n ta g e .
The V ineland Experim ent s ta tio n in Canada has used
A lberta very e x te n s iv e ly in i t s breed in g work. I
d o n 't know how much P ro fe sso r Slake has used i t in
New Je rse y , e s p e c ia lly in re c e n t y e a rs .
With b e st w ishes, I am,
S in c e re ly yours
SJ:M