ORIGINATING VARIETIES. Ill 



world, as the authorized expounder of American pomology ; and 

 anything with which he might be able to follow up a carefully 

 elaborated and exhaustive lecture on the subject from such an 

 individual, could only sound like the harmless prattle of an in- 

 fant at its father's knee ; for though, during many years, he had 

 devoted such scraps of time as he could steal from the severer 

 labors of the farm to the science of pomology, he felt that he 

 had barely passed its threshold, and was scarcely worthy to be 

 numbered with the initiated. Indeed, so grudgingly did nature 

 part with her secrets in the domain of vegetable life and de- 

 velopment, that the days of the years of one mortal life were 

 hardly sufficient to enable one to master the A B C of her 

 mysteries. This one truth, however, he believed he had surely 

 learned, of whatever others he might remain ignorant, that the 

 man who proudly boasted of his ability to conquer and to control 

 nature, simply raved like a madman or babbled like a fool; 

 while he who humbly submitted his judgment and his will to 

 the clear dictations of nature, and made her well-developed 

 principles and operations the guide of his efforts, would seldom 

 fail to reap a satisfactory reward for his labors. 



The partiality of old acquaintanceship had led the lecturer to 

 allude to him in terms quite too complimentary, when on com- 

 ing to the topic of " originating new varieties of fruit," he had 

 said that " he would touch lightly on that subject, as he saw in 

 the audience a gentleman familiar with its details, &c." He 

 had, indeed, made some experiments in that line, for a number 

 of years past, beginning, he believed, in 1852 ; and, if desirable, 

 would try to give briefly the details of his practice. His 

 system then, if such it might be called, was, first, in order to 

 procure seeds of promise for his experiments, to select two 

 valuable sorts (as for instance a Bartlett and a Flemish Beauty 

 pear, or a Yellow Bellflower and a Fall Pippin apple,) and with 

 a view to securing a cross between them, bring them into immedi- 

 ate juxtaposition, by grafting the one into a tree of the other. 

 Second, to select from the product of such grafts the finest 

 specimens only, and to plant their perfect seeds in well-prepared 

 seed-beds in autumn. Third, as soon as the seedling plants 

 were old enough to develop their peculiar characteristics, to 

 select only such as exhibited some marked peculiarity, — taking 

 it for granted, (whether right or wrong,) that only such would 



