X.] HAVE THE BERRIES LOST QUALITY? 233 



other standard sorts. Market pears stand at 7,7, or 

 higher than Angoulerae, Flemish Beauty, Superfine and 

 Louise Bonne. Plums average 7. Raspberries give 

 an average of 7.8. Strawberries are 8, which is the 

 rating of Kentucky, Miner, Ohio, Sharpless and Charles 

 Downing. It is impossible to construe these facts to 

 mean anything else than that all desirable characters 

 of fruits may progress simultaneously. 



In this connection we should discuss the popular 

 notion that the berry fruits decrease in quality when 

 they are brought into cultivation, because the decrease 

 is supposed to be due to increase of size and vigor. 

 Most people think of the wild strawberries and black- 

 berries of youthful rambles as possessing unusual 

 sweetness and aroma ; and I do not doubt that it is 

 true, even allowing for the exaggeration of retrospect, 

 that wild berries are sweeter than those which we 

 commonly obtain from the garden. But I know of 

 no reason for believing that wild fruits are actually 

 sweeter than tame ones. I am convinced that it is 

 mostly a question of ripeness. To be sure, there may 

 be cultivated varieties inferior in quality to some wild 

 berries, but as a rule I do not believe that cultivation 

 has had the effect of decreasing quality. I have given 

 particular attention to this question for two years with 

 blackberries, which are very generally considered to 

 have lost sweetness by transfer to the garden. Among 

 garden varieties I have studied Agawam, Early Cluster, 

 Early Harvest, Ancient Briton, Snyder and Stone, and 

 two of these are rated as low as 8 for dessert by Mr. 

 Lyon, while the poorest of his blackberries go only 

 as low as 7. In the study of wild berries, I visited 

 a region which I had known in boyhood, and which I 



