16 



varied, and so on with each successive cul- 

 tivated generation. 



And not only does cultivation originate but 

 it sustains our fine varieties of fruit; for ex- 

 perience has rendered it highly probable 

 that, but for the fostering hand of man, these 

 would, in the course of a few generations, rap- 

 idly degenerate into a comparatively limited 

 number of wild fruits. 



And here we will digress a moment to state 

 a truth which lies among the foundations of 

 horticultural science that it is as absurd for 

 o man to talk of the natural treatment of a 

 garden fruit-tree, as of the natural treatment 

 of his artificial Durham cow or of his own 

 yet more artificial self; for a fine fruit-tree is 

 the combined product of nature and art, and 

 nature and art must both take care of it, or it 

 dies. 



We shall not attempt to explain v)hy the 

 effect of cultivation should be to produce va- 

 rieties. Perhaps the tendency to accidental 

 hybridization is thereby greatly increased. 

 Perhaps the influences of grafting, being almost 

 always combined with those of cultivation, 

 may be to break up the natural course of re- 



