GENERAL PRACTICE. RAISING FRUIT TREES, 97 



enormous importations of fruit from other lands. The unreasonable multiplication 

 of varieties from seed has practically ruined the apple supply of the kingdom, and 

 a void for high-class fruit has been thus created, which transatlantic cultivators have 

 not been slow to fill. The bap-hazard custom of raising and perpetuating " new sorts " 

 must cease ; worthless kinds and worn-out trees must be uprooted, and young trees of 

 the most approved varieties only planted on fresh sites, and in the best soil available ; 

 then with good cultural attention there is hope that our lost supremacy may be regained, 

 and there is no other way in which this great desideratum can be achieved. 



Are we to cease striving for new and improved varieties ? By no means, but the 

 work of raising seedlings must be conducted scientifically and systematically by experts, 

 not loosely and indiscriminately by the multitude who have trees ; and only varieties of 

 sterling merit, as certified by competent authorities, should be increased and distri- 

 buted. Good as our best apples are, there is room for improvement. The richness of 

 the choice small fruits imparted to the large, a Ribston Pippin with the constitution of a 

 Golden Noble, a Blenheim Pippin with the early-bearing character of Stirling Castle, a 

 Peasgood's Nonesuch with the hardiness of the Northern Greening and the quality of the 

 Northern Spy, would be distinct gains in each case, as would a blending of the virtues 

 of other varieties that might be named. All this is attainable, but only in one way 

 a careful selection of parent varieties and efficient cross fertilization. For this, tech- 

 nical knowledge is requisite and delicate manipulation. The anthers must be removed 

 from the flowers that are intended to bear fruit and seed before the pollen cells burst, and 

 not a particle of pollen must fall on the stigma except that which is applied from the 

 variety selected for the purpose. Marvellous are the improvements that hybridizers have 

 effected in various kinds of flowers. There are the same possibilities of advance in fruits. 

 Mr. Rivers has already practically revolutionised nectarines, also raised new and valuable 

 peaches, plums, cherries, and useful pears by the art of hybridization ; but even he, with 

 all his skill and care, has probably destroyed a thousand seedlings for each one retained 

 as not only distinct from all others but meritorious. The requisites for the work in 

 question are judgment in the choice of parent varieties, competency in manipulation, 

 patience in waiting for the seedlings to bear, knowledge of existing varieties, and 

 especially courage to cast out all the new that are not distinctly better than the old. It 

 will now be apparent that this is not fitting work for general cultivators, and if widely 

 indulged in would inevitably result in the retention of hundreds of comparatively worth- 

 less sorts which would of necessity lower the standard value of British fruit at a period 



VOL. I. 



