PRINCIPLES OF FKUIT-GKOWING AND DEVELOPMENT. 99 



was started each heavy rain deepened it on account of the 

 natural porosity of the soil and subsoil. On the start the 

 water that centred in the gully might easily have been 

 divided and scattered. Or had a zone system of culture 

 been given, with fruit-trees or other crops, the whole sur- 

 face would have been retained. The figure only shows 

 one gully, but the visitor to the old plantation hill lands 

 of Georgia will find a succession of such deep gullies on 

 many fields once productive. 



102. Variety Modifications. A common popular belief 

 is that a given variety of the cultivated fruits does not vary 

 in tree or fruit. But the close observer will find in every 

 orchard-row planted with a given nursery variety that no 

 two individual trees are exactly alike in tree and fruit. 

 In every row of orchard or small fruits can be found one 

 tree or plant that year after year is better in tree and fruit 

 than the others. Those who have not made a study of the 

 subject may conclude that the evident variation comes from 

 the stock on which the tree or bush was grafted or budded, 

 the soil at that point, or other natural cause. But when 

 we propagate this superior tree or plant we find a duplica- 

 tion to great extent of this individual variation. The 

 truth is that our cultivated fruits vary in individual trees 

 of a variety as much, or more, than a row of elms or 

 maples. 



Some of our propagators and fruit-growers are now 

 cutting scions and buds from selected individual trees 

 and shrubs, and we have reason to believe that it will do 

 much to advance horticulture. In some cases the varia- 

 tion of an individual tree is sufficient to class it as a dis- 

 tinct variety. As an instance, in a row of Fameuse apple, 

 the writer observed one tree that bore year after year 

 distinctly striped fruit. In other respects it was in quality 



