 These were gathered from America and Europe, with the help of Charles Howard Shinn, when he was Inspector of California Experiment Stations, between 1890 and 1901.In the late 1920s, Etter shifted his attention to apple breeding, using scion wood gleaned from a number of sources including the University of California.He felt that the west coast climate called for new kinds of apples, and he began experimenting with wide crosses, especially between apples and crabapples.