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We have before us a letter from one of the Professors of the 

 Agricultural College at Amherst. He speaks in strong terms 

 of the necessity of increased attention to the cultivation of 

 apples and of new varieties, and suggests the following meth- 

 od of obtaining them which is by planting seeds from the 

 best specimens of the best variety of apples. 



We have given our experience in a previous report on this 

 important subject, and it seems necessary in this connection 

 to publish it again. 



Several years ago we planted a nursery, hoping if possible 

 to obtain some new variety of valuable fruit. We planted it 

 with nearly all of the seeds of the Baldwin. Before budding 

 we selected about one hundred of the most thrifty, broad- 

 leafed promising trees to remain and come to bearing in their 

 natural state, the most of which were taken up and planted in 

 another field for an orchard. They all came to bearing. 

 There was not a Baldwin nor any one that resembled it among 

 them. All could be improved by being grafted with such 

 varieties as we had. We would now inquire which is the best 

 way of obtaining new varieties of fruit : whether by planting 

 the seeds of the best specimen of the best variety of apples 

 or by cross grafting. 



We have been repeatedly told that the subject on which we 

 have been writing belongs to the man of science, to the 

 pomologist, and not to the farmer. Now we do not under- 

 value the opinion of the man of science, but we would with 

 the greatest modesty and candor submit ; who can judge the 

 most correctly, the man who grafts the tree, who sees and 

 tastes the fruit, or the man of science who never saw the tree 

 nor tasted its fruit. 



In regard to those nameless apples, about which there has 

 been so much said, Mr. Currier thinks they are the Red Russet, 

 and that variety he thinks is remarkable for its keeping qual- 

 ities under certain conditions described in his letter appended. 



Would it not be well therefore to give it a fair trial on the 

 conditions described, and is it not possible that it may be of' 

 much more value than it has been supposed to be. 



