482 Appendix. 



Those persons who are always wondering how the varieties of 

 fruits have come should consult the records. History is capa- 

 ble of enlightening them. If the origins of varieties are traced 

 it will be found that in the vast majority of cases the variety 

 was simply discovered, and that some one began to propagate it 

 because he thought it to be good. A tree springs up along a 

 roadside, in the fence-row, back of the barn, in a thicket, and bears 

 acceptable fruit. It is the product of a chance seed dropped by a 

 bird or thrown there by an urchin. A thousand, perhaps ten thou- 

 sand, seeds produce trees which bear poor or indifferent products 

 where only one bears superior fruit. This one good tree is cherished, 

 and all the others are forgotten, or perhaps are never seen ; and 

 then we wonder why so many more good varieties originate in the 

 half-wild places than in the garden. It is only because more seeds 

 have been sown there ; and as we do not covet the ground, the 

 failures pass unnoticed. If we should secure the same results 

 in the garden by the sowing of only half the number of seeds, 

 we should consider the experiment to be a costly one. It is 

 probable that a seed will produce the same character of fruit, whether 

 the tree springs up in a fence-row or in the garden ; and the half- 

 wild areas are, therefore, most useful and prolific places in which 

 to allow nature to carry out her various whims in plant-breeding. 

 And if man has been willing to be relieved of all effort in the 

 matter, it is fair to assume that he will long continue of the same 

 mind, and that this exploration for new varieties will be a passion 

 of the adventurer until every copse and tangle has been razed into 

 cultivated fields. 



There has been, to be sure, an occasional direct attempt to pro- 

 duce new varieties, but there has been very little definite plant- 

 breeding of the type which sets an ideal before the mind and then 

 tries to attain to it. It is not germane to the present book to dis- 

 cuss the fundamental reasons why plants vary and new forms arise. 

 These reasons are obscure at best, but the greater part of them 

 are probably not past finding out. It is enough for this occasion 

 to say that nearly all the varieties of fruits were seedlings found 

 in some waste place, or in a nursery row or a garden ; and they 

 were propagated. 



