198 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



New York, upon " Higher Aims of This Association," and other debate 

 about business affairs, 



Thomas Mehan, of Philadelphia, unable to attend, sent a paper on "Sug- 

 gestions for the Improvement of Fruits," from which is subjoined these 

 extracts: 



"They need improvement. There has been an advance in some respects, 

 but the general movement has been retrograde. Take the strawberry. 

 Thousands enjoy it now, where but a hundred could years ago. But for 

 this, thanks to the culturist. The fruit has not improved. No variety is better 

 or yields more abundantly, than any that was popular a quarter of a century 

 ago. I know it is customary to smile at the retrospective fancies of elder folk. 

 They are told that distance lends enchantment to the view, but I know that we 

 could go to the strawberry bed without regretting that we did not bring a 

 pound of sugar with us. We now have for tbe table sugar flavored with 

 strawberry. We had in those days strawberries for their own dear sakes. Is 

 it not the same with most fruits? I say most, for in some lines, especially 

 the grape, there has been a genuine advance, though even here we have not 

 done much better for ourselves than the Catawba did for us in the days of 

 which I write. 



"This reference to the grape brings me to Mr. Watrous' point, how best 

 to improve our fruits? Shall it be by hybridizing, or by selection? And if 

 by selection, what are we to select? 



"We can get new races by hybridizing or crossing, but it is of little value 

 as an improving element. Hybridization or crossing is the foe of evolution. 

 It is a conservative power, the deadly enemy of progress. It seems a natural 

 law that everything should vary. Philosophy has shown us the reason for 

 this, and it has come to be generally accepted as a truth that the present 

 order of nature could not possibly exist had not providence implanted the 

 tendency to vary, when the great machine of life was first set going. But 

 every movement of nature is rythmic; there are opposing forces at every 

 step. Continuous advance and rest mark almost every node on the branch. 

 All these rythmic movements come from opposing forces, and in the evolu- 

 tion of opposing forces hybridism is one. A plant with comparatively sour 

 fruit has a seedling with sweet fruit. Insects, or the wind, carry the pollen 

 of the parent, or of those like the parent, to the new departure, and the 

 next generation produces fruit neither sweet nor sour. The adventurous 

 youngster is brought back again toward the ranks. It is next to impossible 

 to make any good use of hybridizing or crossing in improving fruits. 



"In the origination of new races it is, however, invaluable. There was a 

 time when people believed that hybrids were sterile. They saw that the poor 

 mule was sterile, and jumped at the conclusion that there was a law in all 

 such things. Truly, some hybrids are sterile; but then, there are numerous 

 cases of sterility among individuals not hybrids. American horticulturists 

 surely know that hybrids are not necessarily sterile. Eogers of Salem, over 

 a quarter of a century ago, produced a new race of grapes between two 

 species. We all know this race is not sterile. The race having been 

 once established, has given, as by natural variation, a great advance. This 

 is the only case where we know of a certainty that the founders of new races 

 were hybrid. Various raspberries and gooseberries have been hybridized, 

 but no new race has sprung from them. But there are races from supposed 

 hybrids; supposed hybrids with good reason. There can be but little doubt 



