THE VARIETIES OF APPLE 11 



commercial apple-growing has been carried to high per- 

 fection of organization and care. More perfect apples are 

 put on the market, in proportion to numbers, than ever be- 

 fore, — carefully grown and graded and handled. I have 

 watched this American development with growing pride. 

 The quantity-production makes for greater perfection of 

 product, but it does not make for variety and human in- 

 terest, jior for high-quality varieties. We shall still improve 

 it. Masterful men will perfect organizations. The high char- 

 acter and attainment of the commanding fruit-growers, 

 nurserymen and dealers are good augury for the future. 

 But all this is not sufficient. Quantity-production will be 

 an increasing source of wealth, but it cannot satisfy the 

 soul. 



The objects and productions of high intrinsic merit are 

 preserved by the amateur. It is so in art and letters. It 

 is necessarily so. A body of amateurs is an essential back- 

 ground to the development of science. The late Professor 

 Pickering, renowned astronomer, encouraged the amateur 

 societies of star-observers, and others. The amateurs in 

 the background, disinterested and unselfish, support ap- 

 propriations by legislatures for even abstruse public work. 

 The amateur is the embodiment of the best in the common 

 life, the conservator of aspirations, the fulfillment of dem- 

 ocratic freedom. I hope pomology will not lag in this 

 respect. In all lines I hope that professionalism will not 

 subjugate the man who follows a subject for the love of it 

 rather than for the gain of it or for the pride of it. In 

 horticulture, when we lose the amateur, who, as the word 

 means, is the lover, we lose the ideals. 



Naturally, the nurseryman cannot grow trees of all the 

 good apples that may be wanted. The experiment stations 



