230 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [x. 



production .appears to me to be subject to the same 

 laws of variation as other attributes of plants are, and 

 it appears independently of other characters, in the 

 same. manner as size and color do. 



In comparing the habit and vitality of the trees 

 in the best varieties with the poorer ones, it must be 

 borne in mind that a tender or weak -growing or 

 unproductive tree which bears poor fruit is unfit for 

 cultivation, and such varieties do not often appear in 

 the fruit lists. But on the other hand, such trees are 

 often cultivated when they bear some superior quality 

 of fruit. So it happens that the poorest trees and 

 least productive ones described in our manuals are 

 those which produce fruit of the highest quality, and 

 growers are likely to enlai'ge this circumstance into a 

 generalization. But the fact that Winter Nelis is a 

 poor grower, that Delaware is slender and parti(;ularly 

 liable to mildew, and that the Newtown Pippin is 

 unreliable, is many times overbalanced by the vigorous 

 growth and productiveness of Anjou, Catawba and 

 Northern Spy, and many others. In fact, if figures 

 are compiled for the dessert fruits catalogued in the 

 foregoing tables, it will be f<mnd that over 80 per 

 cent of them are hardy, vigorous and productive. It 

 is true that the very hardy Russian apples which have 

 been introduced in late years are very often poor in 

 quality, but this fact is probably due to lack of at- 

 tention in improving the apple in Russia ; pomologists 

 in the extreme north confidently expect to be able to 

 improve the quality of these fruits without losing tlie 

 hardiness of the tree. 



In regard to the notion that the best fruits are 

 short-lived, I have only to say that it is a wholly 



