62 



THE IV§LD CRAB FOR THE NORTHWEST. 



duct and to that alone. Africa is now the world's 

 hothouse, and the scent and flavor of its fruits 

 make glad every table in the world ; while the grain 

 fields of the north return their appropriate quota. 

 The luxurious wastefulness of constraining nature 

 to half-do things, out of latitude and out of season, 

 is no longer practicable. 



And man, what has become of man in this pro- 

 cess of revolution ? He has simply taken his proper 

 place in nature's beneficent plan. He is no longer 

 a beast of burden. He works still — works more in- 

 (iustriously than ever before, but he works hopefully, 

 manfully, as he was meant to work — with his brain 

 as well as his back, as planner and director, rather 

 than as a brute force. He works intelligently, with 

 agents that he understands, and in the direction of 

 assured results, so that every stroke counts. He 

 has trained the forces of nature to do his brute 

 work. He has even taught them to relieve his brute 

 companions of a large part of their work. Oxen 

 no longer painfully drag the plough through stony 

 ground; horses no longer pant under thrice normal 

 loads. Steam and electricity and motive forces 



whereof the nineteenth century had no knowledge, 

 now form the muscles of the world's arms, and 

 catch their power from the tides and the winds. 

 Man has ceased battling with nature, and taken her 

 into willing co-partnership. Her weed pests and 

 her insect pests have either been yoked into service, 

 or left no opportunity for propagation. So-called 

 accidents of nature are no longer complained of, 

 but from them her laws have been codified. Knowl- 

 edge has became power in its broadest sense. 



And pleasure — has that any part in the scheme 

 of the forty-ninth century ? Aye ! to an extent that 

 the nineteenth century knew not of ; willing work, in 

 fields fitted to the capacities of the worker, is of 

 itself one of the highest forms of pleasure ; and the 

 absence of all fear of future want, for himself or 

 his family, affords that contentment and peace of 

 mind that alone can give to leisure any possibility 

 of pleasurable recreation. 



The experimental age has past ; the age of reali- 

 zation has come ; the earth blossoms like the rose, 

 and man laughs in the rose-field that nature and he 

 have together created. 



George Houghton. 



THE WILD CRAB FOR THE NORTHWEST. 



This vast fertile country is dotted all over with 

 fine native groves, heavily laden each year with 

 strictly winter fruit, known to the botanist as Pyriis 

 coroiiaria. That this will prove to be the richest 

 horticultural mine ever opened up to the people of 

 the northwest, no one needs to doubt who admits 

 the fact that "the apple is the king of all fruits," 

 and that winter fruit is the most desirable. I came 

 to Minnesota to make it my home 30 years ago, 

 and I have never known any one to attempt to 

 hybridize or civilize the wild crab in this state. 

 C. G. Patten, Iowa, we believe, holds the distinction 

 of being the first man in the northwest, if not in this 

 country, to hybridize Pyrus coronaria. 1 regret, 

 however, that he did not select a tree from his own 

 wild thicket to start from, rather than the Soulard, 

 which we are informed was found wild near St. 

 Louis. The Soulard is a failure on my grounds, 

 while we have had forms of the same species found 

 here, top-worked with hybrids, and standing per- 

 fectly in high open ground for the past 15 years. 

 If our short lease of life holds good till that time 

 "when the roses come again," we propose to hunt 

 for the largest and best variety of the Pyrus coro- 

 naria to be found in this latitude. We have seen 

 them with fruit fully as large as the Soulard crab. 



I should hybridize with the best of the hardy 

 Russians. In our search for the coming winter 

 apple we tried the common apple and found it too 

 tender. We tried the crab and found the fruit too 

 perishable, the plant too good a home for the bac- 

 teria. Lastly, we tried the Russian and found it 

 the best of all, but not wholly satisfactory as to 

 winter. A. W. Sias, Mifinesota, 



NOTE ON PYRUS CORONARIA. 



The American wild crab, Pyrus coronaria, is one of 

 the many neglected wild fruits of this country. It varies 

 considerably in its wild state, and some of its variations 

 make tolerable fruit for late winter and spring use. The 

 fruit usually keeps well when buried. In the early 

 days in western Michigan we knew of this fruit being 

 gathered regularly every fall. It was buried, and by 

 March or April all the bitterness and acridity had dis- 

 appeared. It is sometimes used for preserving and 

 cider. It has not yet been cultivated for its fruit, but 

 a double flowered variety is grown for ornament. It 

 does not blossom at the same time as the apple, and ex- 

 periments in hybridizing are therefore complicated. 

 The species inhabits copses from the northern shores of 

 Lake Erie to Maryland and southern Minnesota, ex- 

 tending southward to Indian territory and northern 

 Louisiana, and following the Alleghenies into Alabama. 

 — Ed. Am. G. 



