AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NURSERYMEN. 199 



that the Kieffer pear and its kindred originated as a hybrid between two good 

 species. The race of raspberries, of which the purple cane is the type, is 

 evidently between two good species ; as also is the type of blackberry of which 

 the Wilson is the representative. It is believed that the Siberian crab and 

 the common apple have given us a hybrid race, and there may be some 

 others. Once we have the new race we must look to the selection of seedlings 

 for the improvements we desire. It is by no means clear that environment 

 has anything to do with directing new forms ; but, the forms having once 

 sprouted into existence, from the original providential germs,if one may so 

 speak, environment has a great deal to do with the preservation of the 

 sprouting being. If the variation be in the direction of tenderness, a severe 

 climate will kill it; if it prefer a moist atmosphere and finds itself in a dry 

 one, it becomes uneasy; or, if it be one demanding higher nutrition than 

 usual, and it finds itself where poverty reigns, it will do little good. We 

 can only tell from experience whether the variation is in the line of what 

 we want, and from that we must select seed, and again from that as it 

 approaches the type we have set up for ourselves. 



"The introduction of new species for hybridization, or the importation of 

 new varieties from abroad, all have their uses as giving us new lines for start- 

 ing on ; but selection must be the chief weapon in our war against rough 

 nature. 



''I think the want of real progress, noted in the beginning of this essay, 

 comes from too much attention to crossing by the more intelligent among us ; 

 and the chapter of accidents which has left often to ignoramuses the intro- 

 duction of new fruits. Once advertised extensively, the best of nurserymen 

 has to keep them. His business is to supply what the public has been taught 

 by the advertisements to demand. A variety found in the meadow, pro- 

 nounced superb at the corner grocery, and endorsed as the best in the world 

 by the respectable justice of the peace, or the truthful village clergyman, is 

 enough to bring fame and fortune to the introducer, if he will only venture 

 his cash on printer's ink. 



"We can do better than this. It seems to me the duty of nurserymen to 

 take into their own hands, more than they have done, the improvement of 

 fruits, intelligently keeping in view desirable points, and ultimately selecting 

 from seedlings till they accomplish their ends. It will surely pay." 



The Thursday morning session began with an entertaining paper on 

 "French Nurseries," by Mr. Irving Rouse, of Rochester, N. Y., who said: 



"One can scarcely imagine a greater contrast than exists between an 

 American and a French nursery. The first thing that strikes an observer in 

 France is the lack of implements considered necessary on this side of the 

 Atlantic. No cultivators, no harrows, no plows, and no horses to work them 

 with. Not one nurseryman in ten owns a horse, or, has any use for one. 



"The ground, as the Irishman said, is plowed with a spade, is cultivated 

 with a spade, assisted by mattocks, and the stock is dug with a spade. No 

 use there for tree or seedling diggers. It is delivered on the packing yards 

 on wheelbarrows and handcarts, and is taken to the railway station by teams 

 owned or employed by the railway company, and the cost of hauling is con- 

 sidered part of the freight bills. It seems hardly credible, but the propri- 

 etor of a nursery of over 200 acres assured me that a plow had not touched 

 the ground in over fifty years. As horses are not used, the ground can all be 

 utilized; no headlands or fence corners left untilled. 



