FRUITS AND FLOWERS. 317 



existing varieties will run out, while no provision is made for 

 any addition whatever. Now we think it desirable that some 

 system be adopted whereby the propagating powers of nature, in 

 developing specimens of exeellence from the seed, may not be 

 entirely suppressed. Grafting and budding are the works of 

 art, and we are not disposed to underrate their advantages. 

 But we think that the subtle and wonderful powers of nature 

 should also have a chance to operate in the great work of pro- 

 gress and development. For all new varieties in the future, 

 like those in the past, must come of seedlings ; and the old say- 

 ing, that " there is as good fish in the sea as ever was caught," 

 is applicable here. Nursery-men raise trees for the market ; 

 they therefore rear such as the community wants, and generally 

 none others, and as the community demands but a few standard 

 varieties, to those varieties they confine their operations. It is 

 to them no paying business to go into an adventurous chase 

 after new ones. The proper class of persons to engage in this 

 enterprise is the farmers ; they generally have plenty of land 

 and can do it cheaper and with less inconvenience than any one 

 else. Our plan would be to procure the seeds of fruits, them- 

 selves the products of seedlings of good healthy growth, and of 

 an improving state, and plant them. When the stocks are of a 

 suitable size to transplant, make a judicious selection of the 

 number you'wish, and arrange them into a small orchard on the 

 land you may appropriate for the purpose. When they come to 

 a bearing condition, it will be apparent if any are of a quality 

 worth perpetuating ; you may chance to have a specimen or 

 two of a very superior order. In this case you will give to the 

 world a valuable accession, while to yourself it will be a matter 

 of innocent pride and gratification, besides attaining historical 

 immortality by embalming your name in the christening of the 

 apple. The bearers of worthless fruit can be grafted with any 

 kind desired, and that without losing more than three or four 

 years. Any other means that may be accessible maybe availed 

 of for procuring superior specimens not generally known, such 

 as for instance going to orchards lying back in the country, 

 many of which have some specimens of most excellent fruit, but 

 being without a name, are not known beyond their own neigh- 

 borhood, and if no one takes the trouble to introduce them to 

 society, they will soon be lost to the world. 



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