SOME REMARKS ON THE SUPERIORITY 

 OF NATIVE VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 



[By A. J. Downing, Esq., Author of " Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," " Landscape Gardening:," Arc] 



It is a principle, easily deduced from observation of Nature, that the 

 native productions of a given country, latitude, or zone of temperature, 

 will flourish better there, than those from other foreign and dissimilar 

 positions. 



The principle apphes to fruits and vegetables as well as to the animal 

 kingdom, and though Europe has borrowed the Cherry, the Peach, and 

 other fruits from other and Avarmer countries, there is no doubt that the 

 orig^inal varieties introduced from Asia attained greater perfection there 

 than in the less genial climes to which they were carried. 



It is by originating new and improved varieties, that the superiority of 

 the European fruit gardens has been estabhshed ; varieties produced upon 

 the soil of the country, and to which soil they are best adapted. 



This lesson is submitted to our reasoning faculties continually, yet there 

 is a practical want of faith in it, which induces me to offer a few remarks 

 upon it at the present moment. 



The study of Pomology, the collection of fine fruits, and the planting 

 of orchards, have aheady become matters of very general interest and 

 importance in the United States, and especially in the Northern portion of 

 the Union. It is easy to see, from the great adaptation of our soil and 

 climate to the orchard culture of all the fruits of the temperate zone, that 

 the offerings of the American Pomona are destined, very speedily, to 

 become almost as plentiful, and as important, as those of Ceres are at the 

 present moment. Europe, and especially England, has already acknow- 

 ledged the superior quaUty of American apples. With the aid of a sky 

 always brighter than that of the North of Europe, soil more varied, and 

 much of it more fertile, we can scarcely fail, also, to surpass the quality of 

 all other standard fruits grown in England, France, or Germany. 



Our many Horticultural Societies, and our numerous zealous horticul- 

 turists; have been most busily employed, for the last ten years especially, in 

 introducing from abroad every known fruit, the reputation of which seemed 

 to mark it as worthy of cultivation. It is not surprising, therefore, that at 

 the present moment some American gardens contain the largest collections 

 of fruit in the world, with the sole exception of that contained in the 

 Garden of the Horticultural Society of London, the greatest experimental 

 grounds of the age. 



