246 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [xil. 



of western New York, for example, will be a continuous 

 orchard by the middle of the coming century. Now, 

 all these trees come from nurseries of one kind or 

 another, and the variety of fruit which the pomologist 

 plants is determined very largely by what the nur- 

 serymen can supply. The buyer, of course, makes a 

 choice of varieties, but his range is limited, for the 

 number of varieties which the nurserymen of any 

 locality sell is really very small compared with the 

 number of known meritorious kinds. If so much of 

 the merit or demerit of our fmit growing depends 

 upon the nurseryman, we must first ask what it is 

 that determines the selection of the varieties which 

 he grows. 



The nurseryman contends that he grows the varie- 

 ties which the planters want, — those for which there 

 is a demand. As a matter of fact, he largely forces 

 the demand by magnifying the value of those varieties 

 which are good growers in the nursery. The nursery- 

 man's business ends with the growing of the young 

 tree, and the tree which makes the straightest, most 

 rapid and cleanest growth is the one which finds the 

 readiest sale. Now, it by no means follows that the 

 variety which is the cheapest and best for the nursery- 

 man to grow is the best for the fruit grower to plant. 

 Probably every apple grower is now ready to admit 

 that the Baldwin has been too much planted, whilst 

 Canada Red and various other varieties which are poor 

 growers in the nursery row have been too little planted. 



The blame for this condition of things does not 

 rest wholly with the nurseryman, although it is partly 

 his fault. The original diflRculty lies in the fact, it 

 seems to me, that our conception, and consequently 



