356 



CHARACTERISTICS OF FRUIT TREES. 



most thorouGfli ncqimintance with varieties. 

 When wc take into consideration the way 

 in which varieties of fruit are disseminated 

 throughout our country, and the importance 

 of the station occupied by nurseries and 

 nurservmen in that work, the necessity of 

 possessing and acquainting ourselves with 

 correct descriptions of the trees, becomes 

 still more apparent ; that is, if we would 

 avoid extending the multiplied mistakes 

 which now occur. There are however some 

 of our horticulturists, who, while they are 

 compelled to admit that such peculiarities 

 do exist, deny that they can be so de- 

 scribed, as to have the descriptions under- 

 stood and applied by persons unacquainted 

 with the varieties themselves. Such I un- 

 derstand to be the position of Mr. J. J. 

 Thomas, in the May number of the Cul- 

 tivator ; but if this position be true, it 

 can only be so of those who know little or 

 nothing of the characteristics of fruit trees 

 any wa}'. Whether it is true in this sense, 

 as applied to a majority of our nurserymen, 

 I leave it for others more competent than 

 myself to decide ; but so far as I am ac- 

 quainted with them, I do not hesitate to aver, 

 that a majority of them seem ignorant of the 

 characteristics of their most common varie- 

 ties ; and in my dealings with such, and 

 acquaintance with their establishments, I 

 have invariably found that they made many 

 more mistakes than those who are in that 

 respect of an opposite character. And this 

 is necessarily so, from the very nature of 

 the case, (taking it for granted, that such 

 differences do exist,) and for two reasons. 



First — If a nurseryman, after having 

 worked several years among different vari- 

 eties of fruit trees, failed to recognise and 

 acquaint himself with some of their most 

 prominent characteristics, it would bespeak 

 a carelessness and negligence on his part, 

 that might easily lead to the commission 



of the grossest mistakes. Again, if there 

 were a mistake made in a lot of scions or 

 standard trees received, from which he prop- 

 agated, or if a person in his employ should 

 make a mistake, he could never discover and 

 neutralize it, and hence it would be conti- 

 nued. There is but one way by which 

 the force or application of this latter reason 

 can be destroyed ; and that is where a nur- 

 seryman never allowed any one to propagate 

 in his nursery but himself, and that from 

 bearing trees under correct names, and were 

 himself infallible throughout. In such a 

 case a near approach to perfect correctness 

 might be made without the knowledge I 

 speak of. But I have yet to find an estab- 

 lishment of the kind just mentioned, and if 

 I did so, I could not expect to find one 

 that was extensive, or that kept pace with 

 the rapid improvement that is now making 

 in the introduction of new and superior va- 

 rieties. Indeed, in this way, it would be 

 next to impossible to disseminate the fine 

 new varieties, or at least very slow and costly, 

 especially in sections remote from bearing 

 orchards that were scientifically managed. 

 The scions of many of the old varieties 

 might be obtained from bearing orchards, 

 and thus propagated with infalliblecertainty; 

 but who would wish to be confined to them, 

 when so many choice new sorts are being 

 introduced ; or on the other hand, what west- 

 ern nurseryman like myself could afford to go 

 east every year or two, in order to get them 

 from bearing trees ? Hence the convenience 

 and necessity of dealing with nurserj'men 

 who first obtain such kinds, and getting trees 

 or scions from them ; and when this method 

 is pursued, it is impossible not to perceive 

 the advantage of having correct descriptions 

 of the characteristics of the varieties you 

 get, and the knowledge requisite to apply 

 them, in order to know whether they are 

 probably genuine or not, or at least enough 



