XX,] NATURAL SELECTION AMONGST SEEDLINGS. 341 



hood, I climbed the Vermont hills to see those trees, 

 I found that they were but a few scattered individ- 

 uals of an orchard from which the greater part of the 

 trees had long ago perished. In the present genera- 

 tion, the orchard would have been cut out fifty years 

 short of the condition in which I found it. There 

 were few even and regular orchards in the old days. 

 Nature weeded out the poor ones, and the grower was 

 content if three -fourths or even a half of his trees 

 flourished. In these days we count an orchard a fail- 

 ure if such a proportion of its trees weaken and die. 

 Much of the discussion of comparative longevity of 

 apple trees rests not so much upon fact as upon fal- 

 lacious observation. 



Another point needs to be considered in this con- 

 nection. We are extending apple culture farther 

 and farther into uncongenial regions. Much of the 

 talk of the lessening longevity of orchards originates 

 west of the Great Lakes, or is suggested by western 

 experience, but it must be remembered that this 

 prairie country has a very different influence upon 

 apple trees from that of the eastern states, and that 

 there is no common basis of comparison between the 

 two regions in this respect. It is undoubtedly true 

 that apple trees are shorter lived west of the Great 

 Lakes than east of them, but this is not proof of les- 

 sening of longevity in the apple tree. It is simply an 

 experience of the effects of two very unlike soils and 

 climates. Perhaps apple trees will never be so long 

 lived in the northern prairie countries as they are in 

 the east. For myself, I am inclined to think that 

 they will not. But if they ever are, the improvement 

 must certainly come as a result of acclimatization of 



