i) 
58 Principles of Plant Culture. 
446. Those Who Improve Plants are True Benefac= 
tors. He who produces fruits or flowers for others works a 
transient good. But he who produces a variety of fruit or 
flower that is superior to any now known confers upon his 
race a permanent good. Until the introduction of the Wil- 
son strawberry, the markets of our country were not sup- 
plied with this delicious and wholesome fruit, because no 
known variety was sufficiently productive to be generally 
profitable, or sufficiently firm to endure long carriage. What 
a blessing was conferred upon us by a Mr. John Wilson, of 
Albany, N. Y., of whom little appears to be known except 
his name! There are’ wild fruits in our copses to-day 
scarcely less promising than was the strawberry of our fields 
a century ago, and in many of our fruits now under culture, 
the development of superior varieties would greatly enhance 
their value. “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers. 
are few.” 
The following books are recommended for reading in con- 
nection with Chapter IV: The Nursery Book, Bailey; Green- 
house Construction, Taft; Barry’s Fruit Garden, Barry; The 
Art of Grafting, Baltet; The Pruning Book, Bailey; How to 
Make the Garden Pay, Greiner. 
The following are recommended in connection with Chap- 
ter V: Plant Beeeding, Bailey; Variations of Animals and 
Plants Under Domestication, Darwin; Propagation and 
Improvement of Cultivated Plants, Burbridge; Origin of 
Cultivated Plants, De Candolle. 
