TWENTY FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING. 101 



exists at the present time, like the old one, but probably it is greatly 

 improved. 



Therefore, so long as men cultivate will these things change. No doubt 

 there are a dozen kinds of Wilson Albany strawberry, and I do not be- 

 lieve there are any of the original type. One man wants an early Wilson, 

 and he selects his plants from the end of his patch which is early. An- 

 other man wants a late Wilson, and he selects his plants from the late 

 end; and you will find, if you compare carefully, that almost any of these 

 fruits, after awhile, become unlike each other, because every man who 

 propagates them has a different idea. 



The philosophy of plant-breeding rests not so much in the plant itself 

 as in the mind of the person who sits down by his fireside and thinks out 

 a new bean or watermelon, and is sure that he does not conflict with any 

 of the points of the evolution of plants, and then goes into the garden 

 and work^^ patiently until he obtains his ideal. 



PAPEES AISTD DISCUSSIOI^S. 



IMrOETED AND NATIVE PESTS. 



BY PROF. l.\ M. VvEBSTER OF WOOSTER, OHIO. 



America is a free country, too free, in some respects, for the perfect 

 welfare of her jjeoj^le. Yet, an American may travel anywhere over the 

 world, and find no cause to feel in the least ashamed of his country. We 

 are a progressive people, and by all nations acknowledged to be the most 

 enterprising, pushing, and ingenious in the world. We are all "Yankees" 

 so soon as we leave the shores of our own country, and it is said of us that 

 "if anyone else has anything that we can make any money out of, we are 

 after it and bound to secure it." Nothing is too expensive for a "Yankee," 

 provided he can swap or sell so as to make more out of his purchase than 

 he put into it, and we are touching shoulders, so to speak, with every civil- 

 ized nation on the face of the globe. 



We do, though, somelimes, get more than we bargain for, or wish to 

 receive, when we reach out over the world for the fruits, flowers, trees, 

 plants, and shrubs of other countries, for we usually forget that with these 

 are likely to come their natural enemies, such as destroy them in their 

 native homes. Nor is this all, for we accord to these natural enemies full 

 privilege to go where they please and to do pretty much as they please 

 after getting established among us. Of all the different foreign insect 

 pests that have gained a foothold in this country, not one has been 

 exterminated, and but two that I can now recall have been dealt with in 

 a manner to seriously check their spread over the country. 



