80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



by forests, belts of trees or fences so as to protect our trees from 

 currents of fierce drying winds, which are equally as disastrous 

 to vegetation as parching heat, no one can doubt its beneficial 

 influence on many varieties which succeed indifferently under 

 other circumstances. With respect to these facts and their pecu- 

 liarities of certain varieties, your committee have had reference 

 in this report as far as possible, and it is hoped that the time 

 may not be distant when the soil, locality, and aspect for each 

 variety may be designated in our catalogues. 



3d. The importance of raising new and improved varieties 

 from seed, as the surest means of procuring those best adapted 

 to our immediate latitude and location. 



The great loss which has been sustained by the planting of 

 foreign varieties of fruits not well adapted to our location and 

 climate, suggests the absolute importance of raising from seed 

 new and valuable sorts grown on our own soil and adapted to 

 our climate. The results already obtained by the production 

 of valuable American varieties suited to the various districts of 

 our country cannot be too highly estimated. Most of these 

 have been the offspring of accidental seed. Some fine kinds 

 have been originated by planting the seed of good varieties, 

 and the success which has attended these efforts affords great 

 encouragement to perseverance in this line. When we reflect 

 upon the little effort which has been made to produce new 

 varieties from seed it is wonderful what progress has been 

 made. More than one hundred varieties of American apples 

 and more than sixty varieties of American pears are known to 

 exist in the collections of cultivators. 



In the selection of seed especial care should be taken in 

 planting only the most mature and perfect seed, of the most 

 hardy, vigorous and valuable sorts, on the general and well 

 known principle that immature or imperfect seed will not pro- 

 duce a robust and healthy offspring. The liybridization or 

 cross-fertilization of varieties in the hands of a skilful and 

 scientific operator, by which he combines the characteristics of 

 certain varieties, is more reliable and progressive, and opens up 

 to the intelligent cultivator a wide field for improvement. In 

 his hands are placed the means of continual and rapid progress, 

 without the numerous uncertainties which must ever attend 



