THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 375 



of desirable new varieties. With peaches, ])ears, plums, cherries, etc., the 

 chances for valuable seedlings are better, though real improvements seldom 

 occur, and when we get a new variety worth perpetuating, it is almost always 

 traceable to some choice old fruit. 



Witliiutlic past twcnty-iive years, large attention has been paid to improving 

 our out-door grapes. This elfortlias been mostly diverted to crossing or hybrid- 

 izing the native vine with exotics and foreign varieties; and yet among the host 

 of "promising" hybrids tliat have been introduced, there is not one to-day 

 that has earned a vineyard reputation anywhere except in peculiarly protected 

 nooks. 



In the grape line. I have been experimenting with breeding uy pure unmixed 

 native seedlings, I have started a pedigree : 



Native Fox produced Isabella; Isabella produced Eureka; Eureka produced 

 Folsom's Centennial. With Isabella, every one is acquainted. 



Eureka won a di^iloma in 1874, at our local fair, in comparison witli Isabella 

 as being '' earlier, hardier, healthier, better keeper, better flavor, with fewer 

 seeds, tenderer pulp, riclier aroma, — and in no point inferior." 



Centennial won a diploma at its first exhibition in 1876, as excelling Eureka 

 in flavor and equaling it in keeping and in all other merits, with no demerit as 

 an offset. I am growing some seedlings from Centennial. No plants of either 

 yet for sale. 



Of vegetable improvements from breeding up and using choicest seed, I 

 would cite Dreer's Improved Lima beans, Hathaway's Excelsior tomato, and 

 the host of potatoes that follow and claim to outrank the Early Rose. 



The object of this article is to invite improvement in varieties, and to stop 

 their '''running out." What has been done can Ije done. There is still room 

 for improvement, in animals and in vegetables, in fruits and in grains, in the 

 dairyman's pasture and in the amateur's floral hosts of odor and beauty. 



Inventors have a protected pi'operty in their brain-work and skill ; authors 

 copyright their books ; but originators of new plants and fruits are not encour- 

 aged. And why not? S. Folsom. 



Eureka Place, Attica, N. Y. 



VARIETIES AND CULTIVATION. 



CRANBERRY CULTURE IX OTTAWA COUNTY". 



During the discussion on irrigation at tiie South Haven meeting of the State 

 Pomological Society in June, I took occasion to call the attention of the Society 

 to the swamp lands within fifteen miles of the lake shore as particularly well 

 adapted for the cheapest modes of irrigation, viz. : by damming. I also 

 referred to the natural growth of cranberries found on these lands, and 

 intimated that a development of these swamps for the growth of berries 

 requiring irrigation would result in great wealth to the State. I now luive the 

 pleasure of detailing the experiments made by an old and respected citizen of 



