XXIV.] CONCLUSIONS. 391 



Jargonelle pears have passed from cultivation ; yet, 

 as compared with even our commonest varieties, these 

 pears are inferior. Memory is at fault. 



It is by no means true, I imagine, that only the 

 best varieties are in cultivation. Probably there are 

 as good if not better varieties for particular purposes 

 in the old or obscure fruit -lists as those we now 

 commonly cultivate. They may have been over- 

 looked or neglected, or their merits may not have 

 been properly placed before the public. We have 

 more riches than we know. It is true, also, that it 

 is very difficult to supplant a variety which has once 

 obtained a firm foot -hold. Even a better apple than 

 the Baldwin, for all purposes to which the Baldwin 

 is adapted, would find great difficulty in dislodging: 

 it. The lists of tree fruits change more slowly than 

 those of bush fruits and vegetables, because the age 

 of the plant is greater ; and for this reason there 

 are fewer epitaphs of dead varieties in the orchard 

 books than in the literature of the smaller fruits. It 

 should be said, too, that there are fewer places to be 

 filled now than there were a century or even a gene- 

 ration ago, when a few varieties had to do duty for 

 all demands. So new varieties come in slowly in 

 orchard fruits ; and for this reason they are apt to 

 stay when they do come, and the old varieties may be 

 completely driven out. 



The conclusion of the whole matter, as I now see 

 it, is this : Varieties of orchard fruits, which are 

 propagated by buds, very rarely run out, but they 

 may disappear because they are ill -adapted to vari- 

 ous conditions, because they are susceptible to dis- 

 ease, and because they are supplanted by better 



