No. 11. 



Improvement of Fruit. 



341 



the great advantage of frequently stirring 

 the soil; but he was much surprised to find 

 that he had been beaten, and was anxious to 

 learn the management of his competitor, 

 which was his own plan carried to a greater 

 extent, for he had hoed his lot every morn- 

 ing. 



"Farmers will find it profitable to prepare 

 their lands, and arrange their plants so that 

 most of the labour in destroying weeds, and 

 stirring the soil, so essential to successful 

 cultivation, may be done by animal labour. 

 In this there will not only be a saving of ex- 

 pense, but a greater profit by a large crop, 

 for by the use of a cultivator or plough be- 

 tween rows, the soil will be stirred deeper 

 than by the hoe, and it may be done more 

 frequently also. A good steady horse, in a 

 well arranged field, in the hoeing season, 

 will do as much as several men. — Boston 

 Cultivator. 



Improvement of Fruit. 



In the whole range of cares and pleasures 

 belonging to the garden, there is nothing 

 more truly interesting than the production 

 of new varieties of fruit. It is not, indeed, 

 by sowing the seeds that the lover of good 

 fruit usually undertakes to stock his garden 

 and orchard with fine fruit trees. Raising 

 new varieties is always a slow, and, as gen- 

 erally understood, a most uncertain mode of 

 bringing about this result. The novice plants 

 and carefully watches his hundred seedling 

 pippins, to find at last, perhaps, ninety-nine 

 worthless or indifferent apples. It appears 

 to him a lottery, in which there are too many 

 blanks to the prizes. He, therefore, wisely 

 resorts to the more certain mode of grafting 

 from well known and esteemetl sorts. 



Notwithstanding this, every year, under 

 the influences of garden culture, and often 

 without our design, we find our fruit trees 

 reproducing themselves; and occasionally, 

 there springs up a new and delicious sort, 

 whose merits tempt us to fresh trials after 

 perfection. 



To a man who is curious in fruit, the po- 

 mologist who views with a more than com- 

 mon eye, the crimson cheek of a peach, the 

 delicate bloom of a plum, or understands the 

 epithets, rich, melting, buttery, as applied 

 to a pear, nothing in the circle of culture, 

 can give more lively and unmixed pleasure, 

 than thus to produce and to create — for it is 

 a sort of creation — an entirely new sort, 

 which he believes will prove handsomer and 

 better than any thing that has gone before. 

 And still more, as varieties which originate 

 in a certain soil and climate, are found best 

 adapted to that locality, the production ofj 



new sorts of fruit, of high merit, may be 

 looked on as a most valuable, as well as in- 

 teresting result. 



Beside this, all the fine new fruits, which, 

 of late, figure so conspicuously in the cata- 

 logues of the nurseries and fruit gardens, 

 have not been originated at random and by 

 chance efforts. Some of the most distin- 

 guished pomologists have devoted years to 

 the subject of the improvement of fruit trees 

 by seeds, and have attained if not certain re- 

 sults, at least some general laws, which 

 greatly assist us in this process of ameliora- 

 tion. Let us therefore examine the subject 

 a little more in detail. 



In the wild state, every genus of trees 

 consists of one or more species, or strongly 

 marked individual sorts; as, for example, 

 the white birch and the black birch ; or, to 

 confine ourselves more strictly to the matter 

 in hand, the different species of cherry, the 

 wild or bird cherry, the sour cherry, the 

 mazzard cherry, &c. These species, in 

 their natural state, exactly reproduce them- 

 selves; to use a common phrase, they "come 

 the same" from seed. This they have done 

 for centuries, and doubtless will do forever, 

 so long as they exist under natural circum- 

 stances only. 



On the other hand, suppose we select one 

 of these species of fruit trees, and adopt it 

 into our gardens. So long as we cultivate 

 that individual tree, or any part of it, in the 

 shape of sucker, graft, or bud, its nature will 

 not be materially altered. It may, indeed, 

 through cultivation, be stimulated into a 

 more luxuriant growth; it will probably pro- 

 duce larger leaves and fruit; but we shall 

 neither alter its fruit in texture, colour, or 

 taste. It will always be identically the 

 same. 



The process of amelioration begins with 

 a new generation, and by sowing the seeds. 

 Some species of tree, indeed, seem to refuse 

 to yield their wild nature, never producing 

 any variation by seed; but all fruit trees and 

 many others, are easily domesticated, and 

 more readily take the impress of culture. 



If we sow a quantity of seed in garden 

 soil of the common black mazzard cherry, — 

 Cerasus avium, — we shall find tliat, in the 

 leaves and habit of growth, many of the 

 seedlings do not entirely resemble the origi- 

 nal species. When they come into bearing, 

 it is probable we shall also find as great a 

 diversity in the size, colour and flavour of 

 the fruit. Each of these individual plants, 

 differing from the original type, — the maz- 

 zard, — constitutes a new variety; though 

 only a few, perhaps only one, may be supe- 

 rior to the original species. 



It is worthy of remark, that exactly ia 



