THE MANSE GARDEN. 89 



rail, let it be a general rule to adopt those that are 

 of a finer quality than can be advantageously culti- 

 vated as standards; and at the same time not to 

 attempt such as require the greater heat and protec- 

 tion of a wall. The observations formerly made 

 with regard to elevation, local shelter, and subsoil, 

 will require to be noticed also here, that you may not 

 plant such trees as have no fair chance of realizing 

 your expectations. It should be a maxim for all 

 climates that fruit, good of its kind, though the kind 

 be inferior, is preferable to that of a better nature, 

 but imperfectly produced. A good crop of codlings 

 is better than a bad crop of golden pippins. I have 

 seen a tree of the latter sort occupying a space large 

 enough to have yielded a bushel of fruit, but from 

 which it was thought something considerable to reap 

 three or four apples in a favourable season ; and when 

 they were gathered, I have no doubt that the little 

 disfigured crabs, being all seed and no pulp, were 

 greatly inferior, even in point of flavour, to the worst 

 apple of the orchard that grows to a full size. For 

 it seems to be a principle in nature, that if a tree be 

 such as rarely to produce an average quantity, there 

 must be something in the circumstances of the case 

 which will mar also the quality. Yet it is no un- 

 common thing, whether in the cultivation of farm or 

 garden, to aim rather at fineness of kind than excel- 

 lence of quality, although it is the latter which chiefly 

 repays the cultivator, and shows the superiority of his 

 discernment. The temptation lies either in the more 

 honourable name, or in the higher price which is 

 obtained for the commodity of a finer kind : for there 

 is a pride in saying, I grow wheat, and I rear bred 



