March 22, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest 



131 



Are the Varieties of Orchard-fruits Running Out? 



II. 



THE following is the conclusion of Professor Bailey's 

 address — a portion of which appeared in our issue 

 of February 2 2d : 



3. Are more meritorious varieties supplanting- the old ? 



Yes ; not only because they are better adapted to varying 

 environments, but because varieties of greater intrinsic merit 

 are appearing. This improvement is, in fact, the chief incen- 

 tive to the origination ot new varieties. The changes in our 

 fruit-lists mean nothing if they do not indicate that we are pro- 

 gressing. Poor or indifferent varieties are introduced, but they 

 soon find their level, disappear, and are said to have run out. 

 If every new country develops varieties specially adapted to it- 

 self, then it must follow that changes in the original fruit-lists 

 come most rapidly in such countries, and that they will afford 

 the greatest list of discarded varieties in any given length of 

 time. Thus American fruit-catalogues appear to contain few 

 very old varieties as compared with European countries, even 

 when allowing for the great difference in the age of the two 

 countries. That is, varieties disappear more rapidly here ; but 

 a certain stability will come with age, as in other countries, 

 and we shall then probably hear less about the running out of 

 the tree-fruits. 



In 1892, 763 variedes of Apples were offered for sale in North 

 America. This great list must contain enough meritorious 

 varieties to supplant all the old ones which have weak points. 

 This leads me to say that nearly all the old varieties which pos- 

 sess superlative merits still exist ; and this is proof that varie- 

 ties do not wear out, but drop'out. Any nurserymen knows 

 that the Isabella Grape has not run out, but that it is crowded 

 out by the Catawba and Concord. The Barnard Peach, still 

 grown here and there, is driven out in nearly all Peach regions 

 by brighter and larger varieties. It would be but a few years 

 before such Peaches as Amsden, Alexander and Hale would 

 disappear if a good variety of their season were introduced. 

 You may be inclined to doubt this last statement — that nearly 

 all the superlative old varieties still exist — and cite me to the 

 fact that the Esopus Spitzenburg Apple, White Doyenne 

 Pear and some others are little grown now. This leads me to 

 ask : 



4. Are not certain varieties peculiarly liable to disease or in- 

 sect injury? 



It is well known that some varieties are much more subject 

 to fungous and insect attacks than others, and when they are 

 seriously injured year by year the cultivation of these varieties 

 becomes restricted or may stop entirely. The Kittatinny 

 Blackberry, attacked by the red rust ; the lona Grape, attacked 

 by phylloxera, and the Fameuse Apple, very subject to scab, 

 are grown only in particular localities, and were it not for the 

 factthattheypossesssuperlativemerits,they undoubtedly would 

 have entirely disappeared before this. The White Doyenne 

 Pear has been almost entirely driven out because of fruit- 

 cracking, and Flemish Beauty, but for the sprays, would soon 

 follow. I am convinced that the chief causes of the failure of 

 the Esopus Spitzenburg are the apple-scab and insufficient fer- 

 tility of soil, and the experiments in spraying indicate that this 

 good old Apple can yet be grown with satisfaction and profit. 

 The decreasing popularity of the Spitzenburg is regarded as 

 the chief contemporaneous example of the supposed running 

 out of varieties ; but it is chiefly driven out by disease. 



5. Do fashions and demands change and call for new types ? 



Yes ; and the chief reason why many of the good old des- 

 sert fruits are now unknown is because our modern demands 

 are for fruits of great productiveness, large size, beauty, good 

 carrying qualities, and ease of propagation and growth in the 

 nursery ; varieties which least satisfy these demands tend to 

 disappear. There is no money in the Dyer, Jefferis and 

 Mother Apples so long as we have the Baldwin and Ben Davis. 

 The persistence of varieties is determined very largely iDy the 

 money there is in them, and when fashions and demands 

 change, the varieties change. 



I may say here that the merits of many of the old varieties 

 are exaggerated through rosy or unreliable memories. 

 Scarcely a season passes that some one does not regret to me 

 that the old Summer Bell and Jargonelle Pears have passed 

 from cultivation ; yet, as compared with even our commonest 

 varieties, these Pears are inferior. Memory is at fault. 



It is by no means true, I imagine, that only the best varieties 

 are in cultivation. Probably there are as good, if not better, 

 varieties for particular purposes in the old or obscure fruit- 

 lists as those we now commonly cultivate. They may have 

 been overlooked or neglected, or their merits may not have 

 been properly placed before the public. We have more riches 



than we know. It is true, also, that it is very dihicult to sup- 

 plant a variety which has once obtained a firm foot-hold. 

 Even a better Apple than the Baldwin, for all purposes to 

 which the Baldwin is adapted, would find great difficulty in 

 dislodging it. Tiie lists of tree-fruits change more slowly than 

 those of bush-fruits and vegetables, because the age of the 

 plant is greater ; and for tliis reason there are fewer epitaphs of 

 dead varieties in the old orchard books than in the literature of 

 the smaller fruits. It should be said, too, that there are fewer 

 places to be filled now than there were a century or even a 

 generation ago, when a few varieties had to do duty for all 

 demands. So new varieties come in slowly in orchard-fruits ; 

 and for this reason they are apt to stay when they do come, 

 and the old varieties may be completely driven out. 



The conclusion of the whole matter, as I now see it, is this : 

 Varieties of orchard-fruits, which are propagated bv ijuds, do 

 not run out or wear out, but they may disappear because they 

 are ill-adapted to various conditions, because they are suscep- 

 tible to disease, and because they are supplanted by better 

 varieties or those which more completely fill the present de- 

 mands or fashions. The disappearances are, therefore, so 

 many mile-stones to mark our progress ! 



Palms at Federal Point, Florida. 



/^NE of the most beaudful and interesting gardens in the 

 ^^ south, certainly the most beautiful in Florida, is that of 

 Mr. E. H. Hart, at Federal Point, Florida. This has been for 

 several years famous for its magnificent Palms, but it is 

 equally rich in ornamental evergreen shrubs, such as Michelia 

 fuscata, Tibouchina (Pleroma) Benthamiana, Brumfelsia and 

 many others. 



The garden and Orange-grove are located in the flatwoods, 

 with a clay subsoil, and they are arfificially drained. A large 

 number of plants thrive luxuriantly in this soil. An Acacia 

 dealbata had attained a height of twenty-five feet in a few 

 years. It was not damaged materially by the great freeze of 

 January, 1886, but died in 1887, apparently without a cause. A 

 large and dense specimen of Podocarpus Nageia is a revelation 

 of beauty to the lover ot plants. Araucarias are usually not 

 successful in Florida, but a specimen of A. Bidwilli, one of the 

 most striking species, has already attained here a height of 

 thirteen feet. Bamboos also do well, and a Bambusa ar- 

 gentea stricta is thirty feet high. 



But the most important feature of Mr. Hart's garden is the 

 collecfion of Palms. All the species tried by Mr. Hart grow 

 well, with the exception of Washingtonia filifera and the 

 Braheas, which do not appear to find favorable conditions of 

 soil and climate, although they are hardy enough. Frost is 

 the only drawback in growing nearly all the Palms, and only 

 the hardiest will survive an exceptionally cold winter. Corvpha 

 australis is generally hardy, but all the large specimens on this 

 place succumbed to the four-days continuous freezing in 

 January, 1886. Mr. Hart says that Palms can hardly be 

 fertilized too much, and the more fertilizer and water they get 

 the faster they grow. They will thrive under the application of 

 nitrogenous manures in quantities sufficient to kill most other 

 plants. It is well known that on the Riviera and in Italy a cart- 

 load or more of stable manure is applied to each large speci- 

 men Palm, and that the plants like such treatment is proved 

 by the large and healthy specimens seen there. 



Most of Mr. Hart's Palms are planted about in the Orange- 

 grove and on the borders and headlands, and they receive the 

 same treatment as the Orange-trees. In order to show what 

 immense growth they make in a very short time on this 

 famous place, I shall only mention that a Cocos plumosa, set 

 out as a pot-plant not six years ago, now stands twenty-five 

 feet high, with a cylindrical, ringed trunk ten inches through. 

 Among measurements made of some of the specimens in this 

 large collection were several Latanias (Livistona) fourteen 

 feet high ; one of these was in bloom when I saw it on the 20th 

 of January. Several Washingtonia robusta are sixteen to twenty- 

 six feet high, and plants of W. filifera measure from twelve 

 and a halt to sixteen feet. Acrocomia sclerocarpa measures 

 thirteen feet ; Cocos plumosa, from twenty to twenty-five feet ; 

 Phoenix primula, fourteen and a half feet; P. dactylifera as 

 high as twenty-seven feet ; P. Canariensis, from seventeen to 

 nineteen feet ; P. vinifera, eleven feet ; P. sylvesfris, thirty 

 feet ; P. reclinata, twelve and a half feet ; P. rupicola, eight 

 feet ; a specimen of P. Canariensis, twenty two feet, with a 

 spread of twenty-eight feet, the trunk four feet or more in 

 diameter ; P. Leonensis, eleven leet ; P. teniu's, twelve feet ; 

 Cocos flexuosa, blooming, thirty feet ; C. Datil, six feet ; C. 

 australis, in all sizes up to eight feet ; Livistona Hoogendorpii, 

 nine feet; L. olivaeformis, eleven feet; Sabal (species un- 



