FRUIT IMPROVEMENT 79 



Yet what has been done is only the beginning. 

 We speak of "perfected" fruits, and in a sense 

 the word is justified, so conspicuous are the 

 good qualities of the new fruits as contrasted 

 with the old. But no fruit has really been per- 

 fected, in the sense of having reached the limits 

 of improvement. 



There are numberless opportunities for better- 

 ment even in the case of the very finest varieties 

 of fruits of every kind. 



The successive chapters of the present volume 

 will be devoted to specific suggestions as to tJie 

 betterment of each of the important classes of 

 orchard fruits. In the present chapter, it is my 

 purpose to take a general survey of the field, 

 pointing out various lines of betterment not so 

 much with reference to any particular fruit, al- 

 though we shall constantly draw our illustrations 

 from specific fields, as with reference to the en- 

 tire class of orchard fruits. 



The suggestions here outlined are the result 

 of lifelong associations with trees of the orchard. 

 Probably nearly half of my experiments of every 

 character have been conducted in connection with 

 one form or another of fruit trees. 



And a large proportion of my most impor- 

 tant new products, considered from an economic 

 standpoint, have been products of the orchard. 



