152 Success with Small Fruits. 



as to climatic change, and able to stand any amount of manure of the 

 right kind. It should be a prolific bearer, with stalks of sufficient length 

 to keep the fruit out of the dirt, and bear its berries of nearly uniform size 

 to the end. Any serious departure from such necessary qualities would 

 be fatal to any new variety." 



What is the use of spending time on varieties that do not possess 

 these good qualities, or many of them, so preeminently that they supersede 

 those already in our gardens ? Shall I root out the Charles Downing, Seth 

 Boyden, and Monarch, and replace them with inferior kinds because they 

 are new ? That is what we have been doing too extensively. But if, in 

 very truth, varieties can be originated that do surpass the best we now 

 have, then both common sense and self-interest should lead to their 

 general cultivation. I believe that honest and intelligent effort can secure 

 a continued advance in excellence which will probably be slow, but may 

 be sure. 



The public, however, will suffer many disappointments, and every 

 year will buy thousands of some extravagantly praised and. high-priced 

 new variety, in hope of obtaining the ideal strawberry ; and they so often 

 get a good thing among the blanks that they seem disposed to continue 

 indefinitely this mild form of speculation. In the final result, merit asserts 

 itself, and there is a survival of the fittest. The process of winnowing the 

 wheat from the chaff is a costly one to many, however. I have paid 

 hundreds of dollars for varieties that I now regard as little better than 

 weeds. From thorough knowledge of the best kinds already in cultiva- 

 tion, the propagator should not impose any second-rate kind on the public. 

 And yet the public, or the law which the public sustains, renders this 

 duty difficult. If a man invents a peculiar nutmeg-grater, his patent pro- 

 tects him ; but if he discovers, or originates, a fruit that enriches the 

 world, any one who can get it, by fair means or foul, may propagate and 

 sell to all. To reap any advantages, the originator must put his seedling, 

 which may have cost him years of effort, into the market before it is fully 

 and widely tested. If he sends it for trial to other localities, there is 

 much danger of its falling into improper hands. The variety may do 

 splendidly in its native garden, and yet not be adapted to general cultiva- 

 tion. This fact, which might have been learned by trial throughout the 

 country before being sent out, if there was protective law, is learned after- 

 ward, to the cost of the majority who buy. In view of the above con- 

 siderations, it is doubtful whether the pecuniary reward will often repay for 

 the time, trouble, and expense which is usually required to produce a 

 variety worthy of general introduction. Other motives than money must 



