North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Alan Haigh" <alandhaigh@gmail.com>]

Perhaps breeding wasn't the right word.  Many varieties vary by way of mutation when I single branch on a given tree has fruit of a significantly different quality.  This is called a sport.  When such a mutation is considered a useful improvment the discoverer can patent it and market it as his own.  There are scores of seperate patents on different strains of Red Delicious for example.