APRIL. 181 



varieties are dependent upon the same conditions. It is to be 

 anticipated that the "improvement" wonld not offer much 

 charm to the lazy and cai-eless, who will always be content 

 to "let well-enough alone." So they will be slow to essay 

 any experiments on those fruits and vegetables which can be 

 readily propagated, year after year, by cuttings or slips. Per- 

 haps, on this account, the potato-rot may have suggested quite 

 a lesson, in directing the attention of the community to the 

 possible advantage of starting this vegetable, de novo, from 

 seed. And if nothing has thus been gained in the expected 

 vigor, something has eiuu'ed in desirableness among the new 

 varieties so produced. 



Bat it should be borne in mind that when we continue to 

 propagate from cuttings, we thus pnly lengthen out, as it were, 

 a single life ; and it is contrary to the laws of nature, and 

 contradicts all analogy, to presume that this continuance will 

 not gradually show signs of decay, and finally die out. The 

 High Top Sweeting apple and the St. Michael pear may, 

 perhaps, be regarded by some as furnishing evidence in point. 

 It is certain that the latter, which once grew with all neces- 

 sary vigor and yielded the finest of fruits in New England, 

 on any soil and in any exposure, now needs peculiar treat- 

 ment, and the coaxing of good cultivators, to pay for its place 

 in the garden. It may therefore be considered as problemat- 

 ical, at least, whether good varieties can be long preserved 

 without adopting the modes on which improvement depends. 

 [We must dissent from these views. — Ed.] 



But there are many products of the earth which are only 

 to be procured again, in course, by their seeds ; what shall 

 we say of these ? If, occasionally, an accidental combination 

 of properties has proved highly advantageous in a new varie- 

 ty, Nature does not choose to be held responsible for the con- 

 tinuance of this beyond its own natural life. She will throw 

 around it, however desirable to us and creditable to her pro- 

 cesses, no especial protection against another accidental com- 

 bination, which shall effectually annihilate all the good pre- 

 viously attained. No one will require examples in proof of 

 this. 



