392 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XXIV. 



varieties, or those which more completely fill the 

 present demands or fashions. The disappearances 

 are, therefore, so many mile -stones to our progress. 



m. 



studies in the Longevity of the Varieties of 

 Tomatoes. 



Varieties of tomatoes are, as a rule, short lived. 

 Ten years may be considered the average profitable 

 life of a variety, and many sorts break up and 

 disappear in two or three years. This inconstancy 

 of type is largely due, no doubt, to the haste with 

 which new sorts are put upon the market. A variety 

 should be selected and carefully handled for some 

 time before it is offered to the public. 



Almost any of the old sorts afford instances of 

 the running out of varieties. The Tilden tomato, 

 once popular, appears to be extinct. Only two seeds- 

 men in the country .advertised the variety last spring, 

 and neither one, as shown by our tests, had the 

 Tilden of fifteen years ago. One of the samples gave 

 us a small round tomato, late in ripening, and much 

 resembling small sorts of the Red Apple kind. The 

 other gave us a somewhat larger angular tomato. In 

 1887 the writer made an effort to secure the Tilden, 

 but only inferior fruits were obtained. The record 

 of that test is as follows : ' ' This variety, once so 

 popular, appears to have run out. As grown this 

 year, the fruits are very small, irregular and worth- 

 less. Last year (1886) the fruits were somewhat 

 larger, though smaller than Hathaway. When first 



