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>rR. darky's ADDRESa 



T\'Son, Slicldo'n, IloweU, Lawrence, Onondafja, and many otheis nearly ns good 

 ns these. There are, at tliis moment, many thousands of seedlin^^-'s from onr best 

 frnits on trial, and we may reasonaI)ly anticipate some important accjuisitions. 

 Indeed, I believe that before the end of the present centnry, our liest i)ears, as 

 well as our apples, will be those orijrinated on onr own soil. The facts which 

 1 have stated eoncerninff the oricrin of our best fruits, both native and foreign, 

 hold out great encouragement for the prosecution of this work. My advice to 

 you, here in the West, is to sow every good seed yon can get. I mean the seeds 

 of those fruits which succeed best here. When your seedlings have made one 

 season's growth, you can bud or graft the most promising on strong stocks or 

 bearing trees, and test them in three or four years. 



"For several years we have been sowing in this way, and if we get one good 

 one in five hundred, we shall feel satisfied ; we may get twenty. The interest and 

 excitement which the work awakens, is no mean recompense in itself. 



" No other fact connected with fruit culture is more fully substantiated by every 

 day's experience than this, viz: To insure successful cultivation, we must have 

 varieties that are adapted to the peculiarities of our soil and climate. !Many of 

 your most valuable apples for this country prove utterly n-orthless with us, whilst 

 many of onr best fruits fail entirely with you. This Society, and others of a 

 similar character, are collecting information on this head, of the highest value. 



" The fact is well established, that the fruits which succeed best in particular 

 localities are those which originate there, or in others slightly different. I believe 

 the Baldwin, Iluhhardsoii's Nonsuch, and Porter apples, are nowhere quite so 

 good as in New England. The Newtown Pippin, Swaar, Esopus, Sjntzenbvrg, 

 and Northern Spy, are scarcely anywhere so good as in New York. Our northern 

 apples. are of little value in the south, and the very finest southern apples are 

 utterly worthless in the north. The reason why those seedling fruits obtained in 

 certain localities are more successful there than elsewhere, cannot be that the climate 

 and soil exercise such an influence upon the seed or the seedling, but because, when 

 the seedlings show fruit, those only are preserved which possess qualities that are 

 desirable tliere. The 11. I. Greening would not have been preserved in Georgia, 

 nor the Rawles Janet in Massachusetts. The true way to advance in this matter 

 will be for the cultivators of each district to sow the seeds of those varieties which 

 succeed best, or which possess the most important qualities. Every successive 

 generation will be more and more acclimated, and thus, in time, fruits will be ob- 

 tained capable of resisting all the changes and severities of climate, and peculiari- 

 ties of soil. 



"In the hurry of our first planting, this experimental culture has been neglected, 

 but it is now high time that it should be taken up in earnest. It may be said that 

 our varieties are already numerous enough, and so they are ; indeed, we have far 

 too many, but who will say that even the best are good enough, or that improve- 

 ■ -jBent is not necessary or desirable ? No, indeed; the work of improvement has 

 scarcely begun. 



"The rel'orm which has, within a very few years, been effected in the nomencla- 

 ture of fruits, is not the least important part of our progress. What a labyrinth 

 of error and confusion the names of fruits were in, some dozen years ago. Not 

 more than seven years ago, full one-half of all the fruits exhibited were incorrectly 

 named, or not named at all. The specimen trees which we collected between 1839 

 and 1843, were full one-half incorrect, and they were obtained from the most re- 

 liable sources then in existence. Of thirty or forty specimen i)cach-trees from one 

 estal)lishment, scarcely one proved true to name. 



" In the course of ray business as nurseryman, and during my connection 



