ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF VEGETABLE RACES. 469 



well-prepared soil, than to stick in five hundred, by thrusting the 

 roots in narrow holes, to struggle out an imperfect existence ; little 

 by little, the horticultural shows and the markets have proved, that 

 while fruit-trees of the best standard sorts cost no more than those 

 of indifferent quality the fruit they bear is worth ten times as 

 much ; and thus by degrees, the indifferent orchards are being reno- 

 vated by grafting, manuring, or altogether displaced by new ones of 

 superior quality. 



Still, there are some important points in fruit culture overlooked. 

 One of the most conspicuous of these is, that varieties may be 

 found, or, if not existing, may be originated to suit every portion of 

 the United States. Because a fruit-grower in the State of Maine, or 

 the State of Louisiana, does not find, after making a trial of the 

 fruits that are of the highest quality in New- York or Pensylvannia, 

 that they are equally first rate with him, it by no means follows that 

 such wished-for varieties may not' be produced. Although there 

 are a few sorts of fruits, like the Bartlett Pear, and the Roxbury 

 Russet Apple, that seem to have a kind of cosmopolitan constitu- 

 tion, by which they are almost equally at home in a cool or a hot 

 country, they are the exceptions, and not the rule. The English 

 Gooseberries may be said not to be at home any where in our 

 country, except in the cool, northern parts of New England Maine, 

 for example. The foreign grape is fit for out-of-door culture no- 

 where in the United States, and even the Newtown Pippin and the 

 Spitzenberg apples, so unsurpassed on the Hudson, are worth little or 

 nothing on the Delaware. On the other hand, in every part of the 

 country, we see fruits constantly being originated chance seedlings 

 in the orchards, perfectly adapted to the climate and the soil, and 

 occasionally of very fine quality. 



An apple-tree which pleased the emigrant on his homestead on 

 the Connecticut, is carried, by means of grafts, to his new land in 

 Missouri, and it fails to produce the same fine pippins that it did at 

 home. But he sows the seeds of that tree, and from among many 

 of indifferent quality, he will often find one or more that shall not 

 only equal or surpass its parent in all its ancient New England fla- 

 vor, but shall have a western constitution, to make that flavor per- 

 manent in the land of its birth. 



