HOW Till] VARIETIES SAVE COME 153 



these types are yet — and, in fact, never will tw — 

 brought to that condition when they may be said to 

 ■<,d enongh. This conclusion, while apparently 

 th«- only Logical one, d<><-» nol seem to have been 

 reached by writers on the improvement of our na- 

 tive fruits. The tendency of writers has always 

 been, onfortanately, t<» press the important f un- 

 developed B] ies, forgetting that th>- really impor- 

 tant things are the ones which we already have, and 

 all of which are far from perfect. The whole ques- 

 t i<m, then, is simply that of the best methods of im- 

 proving fruits, without respect to their nativil 



Saving now ><-.-n that new types of plants are 

 impressed into cultivation largely because they are 

 needed, and in an undesigned or almost fortuitous 

 way. let na a>k how these particular domestic fruits 

 which are native to North America have been ame- 

 liorated. The process has been a mosl simple out-: 

 attractive varieties, or forms, have been found and 

 men have transferred them to tin- garden. This, in 

 •••. has been the method of the amelioration of 

 domestic plants. It is first a discovery of a 

 form, ami then the perpetuation of it. What has 

 been called plant -breeding is mostly discovery; or, in 

 other words, bo far as the cultivator i- concerned, it is 

 accident. 4 In one place, an attractive wild blackberry 



'al iprijfin of v:u • 

 following ■!« • from Fra 



California : 



; 



Tills waa broofhl to my 

 ■• nnl win h 



had all | 



Mil' 



