360 



CHARACTERISTICS OF FRUIT TREES. 



on the opposite, and indeed much more so 

 ihan a close application of the subject will 

 warrant — because the number of the dif- 

 ferent individuals in the human family is 

 practically infinite in this respect, whereas 

 the different species or varieties of fruits of 

 any one kind in cultivation, amount to but 

 a few hundred. But for the sake of carry- 

 ing out. the comparison, let us suppose that 

 two hundred white persons are selected 

 promiscuously, and placed together ; all are 

 strangers to me, and their names, with an 

 accurate description of each, are handed to 

 me, by which to ascertain the persons to 

 which they belonged. They may if you 

 please, all be clothed in one style of fashion, 

 only allowing the usual variety of colors; 

 and the descriptions aside from this may be 

 limited to the color or shape of the eyes, 

 hair and skin, and to the general form of 

 the person, whether long or short, slender 

 or thick. I would like to know, how it 

 would be possible for a man of common 

 sense to make a single mistake, even under 

 such unfavorable circumstances. If any 

 suppose that they might be made, let him 

 cypher out the number of changes that 

 might be made with the sum of the cha- 

 racteristics above mentioned. But this is an 

 extreme that never happens on the other 

 side of the comparison, it would be nearer 

 the truth of a pretty bad extreme, if one- 

 half had their names written correctly on 

 them, and the other half incorrectly, and 

 he were merely required to tell which were 

 right, and which wrong, and then stop. 

 But let us see what there is in the charac- 

 teristics of fruit trees, that will fairly affect 

 those of the persons. Let the 200 persons 

 represent as many varieties of apple trees, 

 and the one style of clothing be the leaves, 

 and the colors or shades of the persons and 

 their clothes, be the different size, shades 

 and forms of the leaves and scions ; and 



the general form of the persons, whether 

 long or short, slender or thick, be the slow 

 or rapid, small or large growth, and it seems 

 to me that the comparison is a fair one. 

 But the absolute untenableness of his po- 

 sition as indicated in his comparison is prac- 

 tically shown every day, the world over, by 

 the numerous descriptions of runaway 

 criminals and slaves, and the captures which 

 are so generally made by following those 

 descriptions. Again I do not know of any 

 thing that man knows so well as he does 

 the difference in persons, or as well as some 

 nurserymen know the difference in varie- 

 ties of fruit trees, when they see them, 

 that cannct be expressed in language, so 

 that a close, careful, and if necessary, a 

 lengthy observation might not in a majority 

 of cases determine the identity of the per- 

 son or thing. Strange enough if what one 

 man knows another may not, if his abili- 

 ties and opportunities be equal ; and quite 

 as strange would it be in my opinion, if a 

 man could not teach another what he knew 

 himself so %cell ; that is, if the other would 

 but take the pains to apply the instruction 

 received. 



The characteristics I would mostly de- 

 pend on in describing are the following : the 

 growth, is it slow or fast, upright or crooked, 

 coarse or slender ? the prevailing color of 

 the young wood ; the leaves, large or 

 small, serratures coarse or fine, sharp or 

 round, their general shape. Is the tree 

 hardy or tender on the root? Sometimes 

 there are others which are very useful, as 

 for instance, when the growth is regular, 

 like the English Russet and Twenty Ounce ; 

 or the shoots stiff and rigid, as the Detroit 

 Red, Blue Pearmain, Jersey Sweeting. The 

 size of the buds, as large on the Swaar and 

 Golden Sweet, and small on the Rhode 

 Island Greening and Northern Spy. Where 

 the characteristics were not tolerably dis- 



