Notes and Gleajiings. 167 



"Moore's Rural New-Yorker" is one of the very best agricultural and 

 horticultural journals published in this country ; a paper whose weekly arrival is 

 always welcome, because we are sure of finding in every number something 

 worth reading. If it did not get a more careful reading than some of our ex- 

 changes, we might have missed the paragraphs we quote below, and which 

 seemed to us a little at variance with the good taste and fairness the Rural 

 usually exhibits. 



"■Wilder. — Of course, none but the elect have liad a chance to see this fruit. 

 Charles Downing being one of that sort, and a man who knows 'just a little ' 

 about fruit, we will take his record, gathered from a letter of Mr. Wilder, which 

 reads, 'Charles Downing is fully satisfied that it is up to all that is claimed for 

 it, and surpasses in productiveness what he expected.' All we have to say of 

 this is, that, to us, the manner in which it has been, or is being, sent out, is in 

 violation of all pomological rules •, and to the public, each one of which pos- 

 sesses a different soil and climate, it is just as much a humbug to-day as when 

 the Massachusetts Horticultural Society made note of it under a number. It 

 may be a good thing in Mr. Wilder's soil and climate ; but take it into Missouri, 

 Southern Illinois, or Tennessee, and various other sections, and then we shall 

 know how long the variety will live in credit ; although the originator will live 

 forever in favorable recognizance by all American horticulturists." 



We desire to say a word or two about the above. 



1st, It is extremely gratifying to the large number of humble and obscure 

 people who have seen and tasted the President Wilder Strawberry this year, to 

 learn that they belong to the elect. Their thanks are due to the Rural for the 

 information. 



2d, The letter from Mr. Wilder here quoted, and containing the statement 

 about Mr. Downing, was not written to the editor of " The Rural New-Yorker," 

 and, unless the Rural obtained the letter in some extraordinary way, we must 

 believe that the whole article on strawberries is not editorial, but was written by 

 a noted pomologist who told Mr. Wilder last year that he was delighted with 

 the new strawberry. As he has since that time seen neither fruit nor vines of 

 the berry in question, we are at a loss to account for his mysterious change of 

 opinion. 



3d, Will somebody inform us what are the exact pomological rules for send- 

 ing out a new fruit ? Are they clearly defined ? and, if so, were they carefully 

 observed in sending out the Agriculturist and Brooklyn Scarlet Strawberries, and 

 the lona and Adirondac Grapes ? 



4th, To the statement that the President Wilder Strawberry is now just as 

 much of a humbug as it ever was, we assent cheerfully. It /j- just as much, and 

 no more. 



It is so far a humbug as to be selected by Mr. Wilder, after thirty years' per- 

 sistent experiments, and after the rejection of dozens of seedlings (any one of 

 which, if disseminated, would have made a name for its originator and for itself), 

 as the plant on whose success or failure he is willing to risk all his well-earned 

 fame. 



