LITTLE-KNOWN FRUIT VARIETIES CONSIDERED 

 WORTHY OF WIDER DISSEMINATION. 



By WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, 

 Pomologist, in Charge of Field Investigations, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In the introduction and dissemination of new fruits by commercial 

 I methods there is always danger that new varieties will be too largely 

 planted in regions to which they are not adapted. Planters who learn 

 of the remarkable success of a new sort in a remote section are inclined 

 Ito plant it largely without sufficient investigation of its characteristics 

 (and requirements. This not infrequently brings upon them unneces- 

 iry financial loss. 



With the present methods of illustrated advertising, the danger of 

 [inconsiderate planting is probably greater than in earlier days. Until 

 nnparatively recent times, the varieties of tree and vine fruits intro- 

 luced from year to year were chiefly chance seedlings that had estab- 

 lished their worth in the localities where they originated by a record 

 >f many years of production in comparison with the other sorts grown 

 the same localities. Records of a quarter of a centuiy or more of 

 uitfulness are not infrequent in the histories of many of our stand- 

 ird varieties before they were accorded any special notice or propa- 

 ited for dissemination in a commercial way. During these years of 

 il the changing seasons, with their extremes of heat and cold, rain- 

 ill and drought, brought to light such defects and weaknesses as 

 >xi>ted in a variety, and the inferior sorts being weeded out in advance 

 >f general dissemination, future disappointment and loss were, no 

 loubt, to a very considerable extent prevented. 



Only a few of the thousands of the varieties that have been described 

 md disseminated in America during the past centuiy have survived 

 ind are now esteemed worthy of planting. At present, and with 

 increasing frequency, varieties of many of the tree fruits are intro- 

 luced within a few years after the first fruiting of the original trees, 

 md necessarily, therefore, before the characteristic features are well 

 mown, even in the original localit\ T . The risk of failure with such 

 >rts is proportionately great, particularly in sections possessing dif- 

 ferent soil and climate, or where the market requirements are radically 



381 



