PREFACE TO THE ATEW EDITION'. 1 3 



testing the new varieties offered from year to year. In 

 engaging in such pursuits even the most cynical cannot 

 suspect any other purpose than that of observing impartially 

 the behavior of the varieties on trial. 



I will maintain my grasp on the button-hole of the reader 

 only long enough to state once more a pet theory, — one 

 which I hope for leisure to test at some future time. Far 

 be it from me to decry the disposition to raise new seedling 

 varieties ; by this course substantial progress has been and 

 will be made. But there is another method of advance 

 which may promise even better results. 



In many of the catalogues of to-day we find many of the 

 fine old varieties spoken of as enfeebled and fallen from 

 their first estate. This is why they dechne in popular favor 

 and pass into oblivion. Little wonder that these varieties 

 have become enfeebled, when we remember how ninety- 

 nine hundredths of the plants are propagated. I will briefly 

 apply my theory to one of the oldest kinds still in existence, 

 — Wilson's Albany. If I should set out a bed of Wilsons 

 this spring, I would eventually discover a plant that sur- 

 passed the others in vigor and productiveness — one that 

 to a greater degree than the others exhibited the true char- 

 acteristics of the variety. I should then clear away all the 

 other plants near it and let this one plant propagate itself, 

 until there were enough runners for another bed. From 

 this a second selection of the best and most characteristic 

 plants would be made and treated in like manner. It ap- 

 pears to me reasonable and in accordance with nature that, 

 by this careful and continued selection, an old variety could 

 be brought to a point of excellence far surpassing its pristine 

 condition, and that the higher and better strain would be- 

 come fixed and uniform, unless it was again treated with the 

 neglect which formerly caused the deterioration. By this 



