30 SOME REMARKS ON THE SUPERIORITY 



There are great and obvious benefits resulting from this accumulation of 

 the choicest fruits of the Eastern hemisphere. In them we not only possess 

 the concentrated result of the horticultural skill of Europe, for ages ; v/e 

 can not only multiply them indefinitely, and stock our gardens and orchards 

 with the same luscious varieties, but we have also the opportunity of 

 making still further improvement by continuing the reproduction of varieties 

 in our oivn soil and climate, from the point which the highest point of 

 improvement has reached abroad. 



In the enthusiasm with Avhich fruit collectors have imported every fine 

 variety from the gardens of Great Britain and the continent, I fear the 

 importance — the great importance — of this last consideration has been 

 somewhat overlooked. In the belief that we ought to be content with the 

 most perfect results, and most celebrated products, of European fruit 

 gardens, we might easily be led to forget that our own soil and climate 

 may possibly produce still superior sorts. 



Fortunately nature continually reminds us of her rights. She gives us, 

 occasionally, and almost without a direct petition, a new variety, in the 

 midst of a meadow, or by the side of the garden fence, which demands a 

 trial, and after being thoroughly tested, takes its place among the very 

 choicest European varieties — or perhaps at the head of them. 



This indeed should not surprise us. I have already remarked that the 

 soil and chmate of this country are naturally more favorable than those of 

 England, France, or Germany, to most of the fruits in question. A single 

 fact will estabhsh this. The Peach, the Apricot, the Pear, and the Plum, 

 can but rarely be depended on for fine fruit, in open standard culture, in 

 those countries. They are, accordingly, in all good gardens, grown on 

 walls, or espaliers. Our bright, unclouded summer skies ripen all these 

 fruits most perfectly, and in great abundance, in the open air. 



There appears to be something in our new soil, and distinct climate, 

 which imparts new vital powers, and gives a new type to the offspring of 

 an old stock in the vegetable races of the other continent. 



DuHAMEL, the ancient French writer, complains that he sowed the seed 

 of the finest table pears, for fifty years, without ever producing a single 

 good variety. The noted Dr. Van Mons, of Belgium, acknowledged the 

 same experience, and even founded his singular theory and practice of 

 originating new varieties upon it. He believed, that having reached a 

 certain point — that, for example, of a fruit of the first class — further 

 improvement is impossible, and that the future course is not omvard, but 

 backward. In other words, that the seeds of the best variety of pear, for 

 instance, should not be sown, because its offspring would bear worthless 

 and inferior fruit ; but, on the other hand, he chose the seeds of the worst, 

 or Avildest sort, and, by dint of sowing the seeds for many successive 

 generations, he at last reached the point where the wildness of forest 

 nature being gradually subdued, she is forced to yield him the finest fruits. 



