THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



eties ; 5 species of dewberries with 23 varieties ; 2 species of cran- 

 berries with 60 varieties and 2 gooseberries with 35 varieties ; all 

 told 45 species of American fruits with 2,226 varieties have been 

 domesticated from wild plants found on this continent. 



Besides these new fruits from our own country, the strawberry 

 with its hundreds of varieties, Japanese plums, Kieflfer-like pears, 

 several new races of peaches, oranges, lemons, grape-fruits and 

 many other sub-tropical fruits have been introduced. Without 

 these fruits, all comparatively new, the American fruit garden 

 would indeed be poverty stricken. 



But we must add to these new fruits an even greater number 

 brought to orchards and gardens by the introduction of new vari- 

 eties of old fruits, as of apples, pears, peaches, plums and cherries. 

 Had fruit growers for the past hundred years refused to plant 

 new varieties, the niggardly and insignificant assortment of fruits 

 and varieties grown in 1800, mostly exotics which will not thrive 

 in our climate, would hardly make a fruit garden. 



With this great array of new and old fruits and new and old 

 varieties it may be argued that the limit of improvement in fruits 

 is nearly reached. Not true ! Most of our fruits are but one 

 or few removes from the wild state. Every one of our commercial 

 varieties is better characterized by its faults than by its merits. 

 For examples the Baldwin, the standard apple in this state, is ten- 

 der to cold, bears biennially, is subject to Baldwin spot, and is 

 none too good in quality ; Bartlett, our best known pear, is ravaged 

 by blight, does not keep well, and is self-fertile ; Elberta, the com- 

 monest peach, is wretchedly poor in quality and blossoms too early ; 

 and so, with every fruit to be named, faults may be pointed 

 out. ' 



With new discoveries in plant breeding, we are just at the be- 

 ginning of improvement in fruits — on the first rung of a long 

 ladder. We are not nearly as far along in the evolution of fruits 

 as the florist is with flowers, good examples of improved flowers 

 being roses, chrysanthemums and carnations. Greater improve- 

 ment ought to be made in the next hundred years than was made 

 in the last. Probably we shall not be growing a single variety of 

 fruits on a large scale in the year 2024 that we now grow. 



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