THE NOVELTIES. 



THEIR VALUE DISAPPOINTMENTS OPINIONS AND EXPERIENCES. 



"^VERY now and then we find 

 some writer ' ' pitching in " in- 

 discriminately against all sorts 

 of novelties in the fruit and 

 vegetable line, because he has 

 happened to get bit by some 

 pretended novelty that did not 

 turn out according to promise. 

 We find, too, that there are 

 always men ready to denounce 

 the most valuable of newly introduced plants, because 

 they have not turned out in their hands as the introducer 

 described them. They take no account of the variations 

 of fruits in different soils and climates ; and perhaps 

 their own treatment of the plant was at fault. Yet, all 

 the same, they rush into print to denounce the distribu- 

 tors of new plants as arrant humbugs. Doubtless there 

 are many new things sent out every year that are fraud- 

 ulent in their claims. But the people generally caught 

 by the frauds are those who fail to make themselves 

 fully acquainted with plants, and who take the statement 

 of some tree peddler, with his gorgeous books, as gospel 

 truth, and are never well enough posted to know that 

 the article offered at big prices is worthless, or that it 

 is a kind that can be bought from the neighboring nur- 

 seryman at one-tenth the price the tree agent asks for it. 



It is generally these men who are making it so fashion- 

 able, nowadays, to denounce the nurserymen for sending 

 out novelties. The fact is, that progress in horticulture 

 can be made in no other way. Nurserymen of energy 

 are constantly engaged in trying all things, and holding 

 fast to that which is good. If they did ny^t try the vari- 

 ous plants that are introduced, how would their value be 

 ascertained, and how would the great advances that 

 have been made of late years have been possible ? A 

 nurseryman's collector in a foreign country finds some- 

 thing which he considers of value, and sends it home. 

 The nurseryman gets up a stock and catalogues it with 

 the description received, and hopes to make it reimburse 

 him for the heavy expense in looking up new things. 

 The plant may turn out of great value in its new home, 

 or prove valueless. The great result, however, is that in 

 a series of years great advances have been made, and 

 notwithstanding the failures, the balance to the commun- 

 ity at large is on the right side. Nurserymen lose more 

 money in importing new things than they get out of their 

 customers on the worthless ones. 



Take the strawberry, for instance. We have many 

 complaints of the worthless character of many of the 

 new sorts ; but does any one doubt that we have made 

 a great advance in strawberries adapted to our climate 

 since the day when Hovey's New Hautbois was sent out ? 



It took our growers a long time t'o learn that the species 

 of strawberry suited to the English culture and climate 

 did not suit ours, and I know of one of our best nursery- 

 men who for years persisted in importing the best for- 

 eign sorts, with high sounding names, in the vain effort 

 to find a sort equally good here. 



It is not a great many years, it seems to me, since in 

 reading the dwdeners' Chro>ncL\ of London, I noticed an 

 inquiry by a reader as to the best mode of packing and 

 shipping strawberries. The editor answered that the 

 best way was to wrap each berry in tissue paper and 

 pack between layers of cotton batting. He went on to 

 say that he had heard that strawberries were grown on 

 a large scale in this country and sent to market in 

 wagons, and that as many as ten large wagon loads were 

 sometimes taken to market in New York in one day ! 

 They know a little more about us over there now. 



But, to come back to our subject — do not denounce 

 novelties in fruits, flowers and vegetables merely be- 

 cause they are novelties, and held at a high price. If 

 you can not afford to risk a little in experimenting, do 

 not do so. Watch the results with these new things at 

 the experiment stations, and let them, or more enterpris- 

 ing neighbors, try the novelties. But I have noticed 

 that those growers who are the most enthusiastic and 

 successful in their business are the ones who test all the 

 novelties, and are always in among the first with a really 

 good thing while the price is high, and who pocket the 

 losses on the worthless ones with a good grace, content 

 to make a good thing out of the average. And it is 

 through the efforts of men of this kind that a constant 

 advance is being made all along the line. Our fruit lists 

 are doubtless burdened with too many varieties, and 

 many are kept on that were good in their day, but we 

 have gotten beyond them. Many new grapes are brought 

 out annually that may be, and probably are, better than 

 the native sorts we started with, but the advance in this 

 fruit has been so great that the public are more critical 

 than they were when the Isabella was our sole reliance, 

 and our native grapes are now so good that a new sort, 

 to become standard, must be very good indeed. So, 

 while we denounce the frauds, let us hold up the hands 

 of those earnest workers who are laboring intelligently 

 to improve our fruits, even if they are occasionally mis- 

 taken in their judgment. — W. F. Massey, Raleigh. N.C. 



Novelties, Oddities and Stand-bys. — The writer has 

 a vivid recollection of a time, long ago, when he culti- 

 vated pentstemons, and rank, weedy looking plants they 

 were, with dingy, microscopic flowers. Contrary to the 

 bent of his ardent temperament, he never became very 

 enthusiastic over them, for the reason that they pos- 



