16 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



nent value of a variety for such purpose. The Concord grape came out at 

 a juncture when the public mind was in condition for its acceptance, with 

 the result that it was readily and promptly assigned the position which it 

 has so long and so steadily held; while, on the other hand, its even more 

 worthy descendant, the Worden, has for nearly or quite a quarter of a cen- 

 tury failed to vindicate its right to the position which genuine merit would 

 surely entitle it. In the case of the Delaware grape, notwithstanding its 

 great beauty, productiveness, and (at the time) unequaled quality, a full 

 quarter of a century had elapsed before it was able to take an assured 

 position as a general favorite. 



With only the old Hovey as a competitor, many years elapsed before the 

 Wilson strawberry received the meed of general approval which it has so 

 long and so persistently held. 



The Shiawassee apple, a probable descendant of the old, well-known 

 Fameuse, and every way its superior, has now been nearly a half century 

 before the public and has not even yet been generally accorded the rank 

 to which its real merits entitle it. 



In earlier years there was no special effort to hasten the notoriety of 

 novelties, but they were left mainly to win their way to popularity upon 

 their individual merits. More recently, however, with the growth of the 

 nursery and fruit-planting interests, the origination and introduction of 

 novelties has assumed the dimensions and dignity of a commercial enter- 

 prise, and is far too commonly conducted with the inflated descriptions, 

 exaggerations of picturing, and even the unscrupulous sharp practices, so 

 common in operations of a so-called business character. 



WHY MANY NOVELTIES FAIL. 



Doubtless one reason why many of these novelties fail to meet the prom- 

 ises or assurances of originators may be found in the fact that the average 

 cultivator operates on far too low a plane as compared with that of the 

 originator or disseminator; and that, while the latter may by high culture 

 have brought his plants up to a condition enabling them to resist disease 

 or fungus, or to outgrow insect depredations, following which the processes 

 of the average cultivators may be, and doubtless in far too many cases are, 

 effective rather in exhausting such accumulated vigor, thus incapacitating 

 them for developing their accustomed results, though it may reasonably be 

 assured that, but too frequently, their true capacity may have been overes- 

 timated by a sanguine and partial originator. 



It is but too true, as the rule, that few if any varieties are generally 

 successful. While occasionally one, like the Wilson strawberry, the 

 Bartlett pear, the Red Astrachan and Maiden Blush apples, are widely 

 successful under varied conditions of soil and climate, others must be sup- 

 plied with special conditions to insure success — a defect which only wide 

 dissemination and more or less lengthened cultivation can fully develop. 



A very common modern practice is for the introducer to supply nursery- 

 men and dealers with plants, often grown by the originator, by him 

 shipped to the introducer, going from him, perchance, to yet another 

 nurseryman or dealer, and thence to the planter — thus, perhaps, subject- 

 ing the plants to two if not three repackings and shipments during a 

 single season, an ordeal which, if not fatal, is at least far too trying for the 

 ultimate good of the plants. 



