22 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



it comes to be regarded as an axiom, that a pure seed of 

 any variety, locks up in itself all the good at which its par- 

 ent has arrived by cultivation. So it happens that while 

 good tillage and care cannot materially modify the qualities, 

 which are changed only by mixtures, yet such tillage and 

 care will always tend to develop seed in accordance with the 

 variety, but in a higher state of perfection than the parent 

 stock exhibited ; so that the new plant shall start with the 

 advantage which the culture had secured. 



If these principles are correct, would not he do a good ser- 

 vice for both present and future who should devote himself 

 to the development of old- and approved varieties of fruits 

 and vegetables to their highest capacity, by raising successive 

 generations of pure seed from them? We believe that the 

 finest pears, St. Michael, Bartlett, Seckel, Ananas, not to 

 mention others, and all other fruits in the same way, can 

 thus be made superior to what they now are, having all their 

 good, distinctive qualities intensified by new generations ; 

 throwing all the advantage and strength of thorough culture 

 into the production of pure seed, again and again, and reap- 

 ing significant advantage every time, on the basis of the 

 present variety, and without any admixture ! Why, good as 

 it is, and we like it as well as any new ones, be content with 

 taking offsets from Hovey's Seedling ? Let us have a Hov- 

 ey's Seedling, Jr., that shall shame the parent by comparison, 

 as no other variety, with different properties however good 

 in themselves, can do. We believe in improvement even to 

 perfection, in each kind, as well as in progress by hybridization. 



But, Mr. Editor, if we are not to take care of the seed, and 

 prevent the accidental hybridization by this care, for the sake 

 of the improvement, we must not forget that the facility of 

 hybridization is of great disadvantage with varieties which 

 are dependent upon pure seed for their continuance. The 

 accidental mixtures are once in a while favorable ; ninety 

 times in every hundred, they result in a deterioration, or 

 loss of the good, and in the production of no adequate sub- 

 stitute. We can raise trees and shrubs, strawberry vines, 

 (fcc, and some vegetables, without thinking about their seed- 



