1879. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



319 



an evidence of the fruit slii[)[)ed from New Eng- 

 land—not including those from Connecticut, which 

 went to New York— we find that more than half 

 a million barrels o/ fruit were shipped from 

 Boston, and ports east from Boston in 1878. Of 

 this nuinlier fully two hundred and lifty thou- 

 sand barrels were grown in New Hampshire 

 alone, three quarters of the balance were from 

 Massachusetts, and the rest from Maine. 



Lessons of Experience. — In that address 1 en- 

 (h'avored to sum up the experience which had 

 been acquii'cd during these years of our associa- 

 tion, and the opinions I had so fully and freely 

 expressed on former occasions on the topics con- 

 nected with our art. I shall withhold any ex- 

 tended remarks in the present address, and 

 simply refer to a few of the most important les- 

 sons which have been acquired by the experience 

 of the past. I have often alluded to these be- 

 fore, but I desire to call your attention to them 

 again, and first, the expediency of producing 

 new and improved varieties from seed, either by 

 cross-breeding or from the natural seed of the 

 best known kinds extant. These are the best 

 methods of increasing and preserving a perpe- 

 tuit}' of choice fruits, so that they may be adapt- 

 ed to the various soils and temperatures of our 

 widely extended and constantly increasing do- 

 main. Therefore, confirming my oft-repeated 

 suggestions, I most earnestly desire to enforce 

 them and thus obtain in the future more and 

 more of those superlative fruits that grace the 

 catalogues of different sections of our country. 

 Go on without fear of disappointment. This is 

 the road that leads to success. Who knows 

 what glorious fruits you may create to bless the 

 generations that are to follow you ? 



Advantages of Cross-Fertilization or Hybridi- 

 zation of Plants. — AVhat wonders have been 

 achieved in the vegetable kingdom by cross-fer- 

 tilization in our own time ! But still greater 

 wonders are to be realized by this art as time 

 advances, producing new and improved varieties 

 of still greater excellence. Instances are so 

 numerous of wonderful improvement by the 

 application of this art in the production of mag- 

 nificent fruits, flowers, and vegetables, as to need 

 no reference in detail. I have so often, during 

 the forty years of my own experience, alluded 

 to the importance of this art as the true means 

 of rapid progress, that I refrain from extended 

 remark and desire only to repeat again my for- 

 mer advice, to plant the most perfect and ^nature 

 seed of our very best fruits., and as the means of 



more rapid progress to cross-fertilize our finest 

 fruits for still greater excellence. Tluis I have 

 discoursed to you for many years — thus I have 

 promised to do while I live. This is our work, 

 to direct and ludp Nature on in tiie course i»f im- 

 j)rov«'nu'nt. 



Who that has witnessed the amazing improve- 

 ment by the application of this art in the rose, 

 camellia, dahlia, azalea, and other plants in our 

 own time, — who that has seen the hybrid gra[)es 

 of Ricketts, Rogers, Ellwanger & Barry, Moore^ 

 Campbell, and other practitioners, can doul)t the 

 potent influence of the cross-impregnation of 

 plants ? Who that reflects on the astonishing 

 advance made by hybridization of the camellia 

 in France and Italy, the camellia and azalea in 

 Belgium, England, and France, and the im- 

 provement in the vegetable kingdom generally^ 

 can hesitate to say that this art is the great 

 secret and source of the wonderful advance 

 which has been achieved during the last half of 

 the present century ? Who that has seen the 

 magnificent plants in our own conservatories, or 

 the grand plant collections of England produced 

 by this art, but would exclaim, " Trul}', here, at 

 last, have we found the philosopher's stone I" 



This improvement is all within the hand of 

 man, to use it as he will. The field of progress 

 is endless, and it is your duty, gentleman, to 

 occupy the ground. The same Divine power 

 that gave us the infinite species of plants and 

 trees, also furnished them with the ability not 

 only to perpetuate themselves, but under judi- 

 cious treatment, and a wise selection of parents, 

 to produce indefinitely still better varieties than 

 we now possess. In a woixl, we must depend 

 mainly on the production from seed for fruits 

 adapted to the various locations of our vast ter- 

 ritory. And what richer legacy can a man leave 

 to the generations that are to follow him, than 

 a fine, delicious fruit, which he shall have origi- 

 nated by his own hand. This will be a living 

 monument to his memory when posterity shall 

 recline beneath the shade of its branches, and 

 pluck the luscious fruit from the trees which he 

 has left them. 



Thinning and Packing of Fruit. — The import- 

 ance of properly thinning our fruit trees when 

 bearing redundant crops is more and more appa- 

 rent. To produce fruit that commands a good 

 price in the market has become an absolute 

 necessity. This is seen especially in that inten- 

 ded for exportation, apples of good size, fair and 

 properly packed, commanding in the English 



