108 



POMOLOGICAL REFORM. 



arrangement, after the convention is once 

 successfully organized. 



The following remarks on this subject 

 are from the pen of Mr. Beecher, They 

 were written for the meridian of Indiana ; 

 but are so entirely apposite to the subject, 

 that our readers will be glad to see them 

 published here : 



" Already the varieties of hardy fruits 

 have become so numerous, that not only 

 can they not all be cultivated, but the mere 

 list of names is too bulky to be printed. 

 Downing's book gives a list of 181 apples. 

 The London Horticultural Society's Cata- 

 logue, expurgated at that, gives 900 kinds 

 of apples, and 1500 have been tested in the 

 society's gardens. Manning's experimental 

 grounds and nursery at the time of his 

 death, contained 1000 named varieties of 

 the pear ! Swollen as is the list, there are 

 scores annually added ; many, under the 

 advice of scientific bodies ; many have po- 

 pular approbation ; many, from the partiali- 

 ties of some parental nurseryman ; and 

 many come in, as evil came into this world, 

 no one can tell how. 



"It has become necessary, therefore, to 

 exclude many from the catalogue, and es- 

 pecially necessary that none should enter 

 vi^ithout the very best passport. In the main, 

 one set of tests will serve, both for receiving 

 and expurgating; for no matter how long 

 a fruit has been on the list, it should be 

 ejected if, being out, its qualities would 

 not gain it a fresh admission. There are 

 no hereditary rights, or rights of occupan- 

 cy, in pomological lists. 



" Titles, rank, antiquity, pedigree and 

 other merciful means of compensating a 

 want of personal merit, may do for men, but 

 not for apples. A very glorious pomological 

 reformation broke out in the London Horti- 

 cultural Society's gardens at Chiswick, and 

 that Luther of the orchard, Mr. Thompson, 

 has abolished an astonishing number of 

 sinecures, and reformed, if not worthless 

 rotten boroughs, very worthless apples and 

 pears. The society's first catalogue, issued 

 in 1826. Its third catalogue was published 

 in December of 1842. The experience of 

 the intervening sixteen years, led to the 

 total rejection from their list, on the ground 



of inferiority, or as synonyms, of 600 varie- 

 ties of apples; 139 of cherries; 200 of 

 gooseberries ; 82 of grapes ; 80 of straw- 

 berries ; 150 of peaches ; 200 of pears ; and 

 150 of plums. Only twenty-eight peaches 

 are allowed to stand ; and only twenty-six 

 strawberries out of the hundreds that were 

 proved. We have no similar society in the 

 United States, whose authority would be 

 generally acknowledged. Our only re- 

 source is the diffusion of the very best fruits, 

 that every neighborhood may have a stan- 

 dard of comparison by the reduction of ex- 

 perience to the form of rules. Although it 

 is difficult to lay down general rules on 

 this subject, there are three which may be 

 mentioned. 



" 1. Nofrtcii should be admitted to the list, 

 and none retained upon it, which is decidedly 

 poor. — One would suppose this truism to be 

 superfluous as a rule. But it is only neces- 

 sary to go out into seedling orchards in 

 any neighborhood in this vicinity, to find 

 small, tough, and flavorless apples, which 

 hold their place along side of orchards 

 filled with choice grafted fruit. 



" 2. No seedling fruit should be added to 

 the list, ivhich is in no respect better than 

 those, of the same period of ripening, al- 

 ready cultivated. — It is not enough that an 

 apple is nearly or quite as good as another 

 favorite apple. It must be as good in fla- 

 vor, and better in some of its habits. 



" 3. In testing the merits of fruit, an es- 

 timate should be the result oj a consideration 

 of all the habits, jointly, of the tree and of 

 the fruit. — It is in the application of this 

 rule that great experience, and judgment 

 are required. This will be plain, if one 

 considers how many essential particulars 

 enter into a first-rate fruit besides mere 

 flavor. 



" Of two fruits equal in flavor, one may 

 surpass the other in tenderness of flesh, in 

 juiciness, in delicacy of skin, and in size. 

 It is rare that any single fruit combines all 

 these excellencies, and therefore it is, that 

 we retain several varieties, among which 

 such properties are distributed. 



" There are many fruits which, having 

 good substance and flavor, derive their 

 value from some single peculiarity. Thus, 

 a fruit may be no better than many others* 



