MICHIGAN" STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 38L 



territory, or even to his own section, he would become ii public 

 benefactor. Think of the number of persons in the United 

 States who are now engaged in the growth of fruits. Should 

 each one produce one good variety, a not impossible thing, we 

 should have varieties enough to endure for centuries, adapted 

 to every soil and location in our vast territory. 



Let any one visit the nurseries established by Mr. Clapp, in 

 Massachusetts, the originator of the Clapp's Favorite pear, and 

 see the many seedling trees now just coming into bearing, and 

 he cannot but be delighted, as we have been, Avith vritnessing 

 these trees in their youthful vigor, and studying the various 

 forms into which the Bartlett, the Flemish Beauty, the Beurre 

 d'Anjou, the Urbaniste, the Beurre Clairgeau, the Beurre Bosc, 

 and other standard varieties have been changed, and he cannot 

 but admit that the daily opportunity for such study would be 

 an ample recompense for all the trouble and expense of raising 

 such trees. But, besides this gratiiication, is the probability of 

 raising a new variety, which, in one point or another, shall be 

 superior to any before acquired, and which shall be a blessing 

 to the nation. Does any one object, that fruits adapted to cul- 

 tivation through the country are few and far between ? Let 

 him raise a variety which shall be better adapted to his own 

 locality than any before known. Let us have Favorites for 

 Virginia and Georgia, and for all and every State in our nation. 

 If I could feel that I had been the means of inducing our mem- 

 bers, or other cultivators, to raise new fruits worthy to bear 

 their names, I should feel that I had lived for a useful purpose. 



The importance of producing new varieties from seed is no 

 loinger questioned. The fact, that the seed of good varieties 

 will generally produce good offspring, is now well established. 

 These are, however, the natural results which have been de- 

 rived from fruits already improved; and we can offer no better 

 proofs of the advantages of artificial impregnation than the 

 multitude of improved varieties which have been produced in 

 the vegetable kingdom by this process. 



