164 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



produce trees that bear poor or indifferent products 

 when only one bears superior fruit. This one good tree 

 is cherished, and all the others are forgotten, or perhaps 

 are never seen; and then we wonder why so many more 

 good varieties originate in the half-wild places than in the 

 garden. It is only because more seeds have been sown 

 there, and as we do not covet the ground, the failures pass 

 unnoticed. If we should secure the same results in the 

 garden by the sowing of only half the number of seeds, we 

 should consider the experiment to be a costly one. It is 

 probable that a seed will produce the same character of 

 fruit, whether the tree springs up in a fence-row or in the 

 garden; and the half -wild areas are, therefore, most useful 

 and prolific places in which to allow nature to carry out 

 her various kinds of plant-breeding. And if man has 

 been willing tq be relieved of all effort in the matter, it is 

 fair to assume that he will long continue of the same mind, 

 and that this exploration for new varieties will be a passion 

 of the adventurer until every copse and tangle has been 

 razed into cultivated fields. 



It is not the province of the present book to discuss 

 the fundamental reasons why plants vary and new forms 

 arise. These reasons are obscure at best, but the greater 

 part of them are probably not past finding out. It is 

 enough for this occasion to say that nearly all the varieties 

 of fruits were seedlings found in some waste place, or in a 

 nursery row or a garden; and they were propagated. 



THE SECUBING OF THE PLANTS 



It is first necessary, in choosing the plants for fruit- 

 grounds, to determine what first-class stock is. The nur- 

 seryman contends that he grows the varieties that the 



