390 ANNUAL REPORT OP THE Off. Doc. 



be wise for any man to cut down or giaft over certain apples, or 

 pears or plums, or jmll out certain grapes because the}' are of poor 

 quality. l>ut in the jtlantiug of new oichards a man should look 

 well to the quality of the \arletics he selects. Speaking broadly, 

 and noting the Kieller pear as the most marked exception, fruits of 

 fine llavor can be grown as easily as grosser tasting ones. Here we 

 have a seeming paradox for the best things in life most often come 

 only by the greatest care and extreme labor of mind or body. In 

 planting for the future, then, plant for quality. 



Fourth. N-ever in the history of the world have there been so 

 many men directing their elforts towards the improvements of plants. 

 With the recent discoveries in plant breeding and the accumulated 

 knowledge of centuries the elforts that are being put forth are 

 bound to lesult in many new introductions within the next few 

 years. A man may be pardoned if he clings to some of the medi- 

 ocre varieties we now have for these are the elder-born to whom 

 we have become attached in tenderly carrying them through a help- 

 less infancy, but as the physicians and midwives of horticulture 

 bring in the new born let us be chary of a blessing until their char- 

 acter for high quality is established. Let them be "born to blush 

 unseen" and if christened let them remain in the limbo of the nur- 

 seryman's catalogue, if high quality be not among their accomplish- 

 ments. Let us raise the standard of excellence and accept only new 

 fruits which are superior in quality to their predecessors. 



Fifth. The nurserymen can do much to encourage the growing 

 of good fruit and to secure the appropriate recognition of high qual- 

 ity. The country is filled with men and women from city, town 

 and country who want to grow fruit for pleasure and profit. When 

 these embryonic fruit-growers pick the shell and get ready to plant, 

 they go to a nurseryman for trees. Now if the nurseryman will 

 sell all untledged fruit-growers (the old hands should be able to take 

 care of themselves) varieties of quality rather than what they can 

 spare, fruit-growing and in the long run, the nursery trade, will 

 have been helped. Some nurserymen hold it to be their inalienable 

 right to substitute when varieties run short. If all such will only 

 slip in a choicely good variety instead of an odd or an end, there 

 will be less poor fruit. Nurserj^men say they grow the varieties 

 that fruit-growers want. In reality, however, they very largely 

 force planters to take sorts that grow readily and make good look- 

 ing trees in the nursery. Thus Canada Red, Winter Nellis, cherries 

 on Mazzard, plums on St. Julian, cannot be had in the average nur- 

 sery. Trees for the orchard must be grown in the nursery; trees 

 grown in the nursery must be sold to the fruit-grower; the weal or 

 the woe of the fruit-grower is the weal or the w^oe of the nursery- 

 man. If tree-growers would push the sale of varieties and trees 

 that are truly most useful to the tree-planter, nurserymen, fruit- 

 growers and the public all Mill be gainers thereby. 



Leaving now the individual, there are some things that horti- 

 cultural organizations can do to forward the interest of high qual- 

 ity fruit and hence the interests of all eastern fruit-growers. 



It should be the business of eastern horticultural societies, one 

 and all, to make the public familiar with the nanres and the quali- 

 ties of fruits. With this knowledge fruit-buyers would pay the dif- 



