DO VARIETIES WEAR OUT OR TEND TO WEAR OUT ? 1 



This question has been argued from time to time for more 

 than half a century, and is far from being settled yet. In- 

 deed, it is not to be settled either way so easily as is some- 

 times thought. The result of a prolonged and rather lively 

 discussion of the topic about forty years ago in England, in 

 which Lindley bore a leading part on the negative side, was, 

 if we rightly remember, that the nays had the best of the 

 argument. The deniers could fairly well explain away the 

 facts adduced by the other side, and evade the force of the 

 reasons then assigned to prove that varieties were bound to 

 die out in the course of time. But if the case were fully re- 

 argued now, it is by no means certain that the nays would 

 w r in it. The most they could expect would be the Scotch 

 verdict " not proven." And this not because much, if any, 

 additional evidence of the actual wearing out of any variety 

 has turned up since, but because a presumption has been 

 raised under which the evidence would take a bias the other 

 way. There is now in the minds of scientific men some reason 

 to expect that certain varieties would die out in the long run, 

 and this might have an important influence upon the inter- 

 pretation of the facts that would be brought forward. Curi- 

 ously enough, however, the recent discussions to which our 

 attention has been called seem, on both sides, to have over- 

 looked this matter. 



But, first of all, the question needs to be more specifically 

 stated if any good is to come from a discussion of it. There 

 are varieties and varieties. They may, some of them, disap- 

 pear or deteriorate, but yet not wear out — not come to an 

 end from any inherent cause. One might even say, the 

 younger they are the less chance of survival unless well cared 

 1 New York Tribune, semi-weekly edition, December 8, 1874. 



