IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT BY CROSS-BREEDING. 



been most practiced. A given species of plant requires a certain range of temperature, 

 and a certain amount of light, to enable it to grow in a healthy condition, or yield fruit of 

 the greatest excellence; an excess or deficiency of heat and light, being alike injuri- 

 ous. 



The gooseberry, strawberry, apple, and perhaps the cherry, are perfectly at home in 

 England; they are grown there in great perfection, and there many valuable varieties have 

 originated. But the pear, generally, seems to require a somewhat higher temperature. 

 Several of the fine Flemish varieties do not ripen Vv'ell on standards in ordinary seasons, 

 and fruit from a wall, though large and handsome, is never so highly flavored as that ri- 

 pened on a standard. Peaches, again, grown in England at great expense, chiefly under 

 glass, and with artificial heat, are poor and insipid, compared with the delicious fruit which 

 may be had so cheaply in New-York. If, therefore, it is a matter of so much importance 

 that the fruit we wish to save seed from, should be made to acquire a high degree of ex- 

 cellence, it is apparent that in several of the states at least, ordinary culture will aff"ord 

 peaches far superior to any that could be raised in England by the most skillful gardener. 

 Our high summer temperature, and dry atmosphere, may be imitated, but the brilliant 

 sunshine, the bright light, on which the quality of the fruit so much depends, is inimita- 

 ble. This should be a matter of great encouragement to the improvers of the more valu- 

 able kinds of fruit in this country — favored so much by climate, judicious selection and 

 crossing, with improved culture, they can hardly fail to be otherwise than successful. 



While on this subject, perhaps I may be permitted to quote from one of the letters I 

 had the pleasure to receive from the late Andrew Knight, a few remarks respecting the 

 kinds of fruit he considered yet capable of improvement. 



After giving me a humorous account of an interview with a grower of large gooseberries 

 in Cheshire, he says, " I lament that the improvers of the gooseberry did not in prefer- 

 ence, select the Red Currant. Culture has alwaj^s a tendencj'^ to render fruits less acid, 

 and to some extent, more tasteless, and the currant, on that account, promised a wider 

 extent of improvement than the gooseberry. I think it not very improbable that the Red 

 Currant might be made by successive generations, and proper culture, a sweet, perhaps a very 

 sweet fruit. The Green Gage Plum is the cultivated sloe. And I do not doubt that the pun- 

 gently acid fruit of the Berberry might be changed into a very saccharine fruit. The apple 

 and gooseberry alone, of our fruits, have, I think, been shown in the greatest state of per- 

 fection, nearly what they have the power of acquiring in the climate of England; and of the 

 plum and common cherry, we have many, or more properly, several fine varieties. To 

 the improvement of the Morello Cherry, a totally distinct species, no attention has been 

 paid. With the pear, probably much may yet be done, but I fear the pear assumes its 

 highest state of perfection in the warmer parts alone of England; as a fruit for the press, 

 in such situations, I think it capable of affording a very fine wine fluid, far preferable to 

 the wretched mixture often drank in England under the name of wine." 



I have been glad to learn from the pages of this Journal, that many are now endeavor- 

 ing to raise improved varieties of fruit. Gardening is allowed to be one of the most de- 

 lightful amusements which can occupy the leisure hours of man — but pleasing as the ordi- 

 narj"- culture of the plant may be, it is a tame and monotonous pursuit, compared with the 

 pleasure to be derived from raising new kinds of perennial flowers or fruit from seed. The 

 comparative uncertainty of the results of our experiments has its charms. In ordinary 

 gardening, we know that the flowers and fruit of next summer will be like those of the 

 summer that is past — differing it may be, a little, in beauty or flavor, as the season 

 pitious or otherwise; but from the momenta seedling springs from the ground, to the 



