556 



THE EDITOR'S OLTLOOK. 



cultural and agricultural press can do and are doing 

 this work better than the stations. At the present 

 time, commercial growers are usually better testers, 

 safer judges, than are the experimenters. 



It may be said, in opposition to all this, that 

 only the stations can secure unintroduced varieties, 

 and test them before they are disseminated. But 

 tests of unintroduced sorts are as unsatisfactory as 

 others, and practically they amount to little. An 

 originator or introducer sends his novelties to many 

 stations and proclaims the fact to the world as an 

 evidence of his honesty. He is sure to get a favor- 

 able sentence or two from some station, and the 

 more stations the more replies. He publishes the 

 endorsements and forgets denouncements. The 

 station may publish an adverse report, but com- 

 paratively few growers see it, and if they do they 

 still want to try it upon their soil "to see what it 

 will do." The fact is that tests made at only one 

 place in each state, and upon from one to six plants, 

 possess little value. And it is also true that the 

 introducer usually puts his variety upon the market 

 the next year or the second year after it has been 

 sent to the stations. If we were an originator, we 

 should avail ourselves at once of the "station 

 dodge " as the best means of advertising. 



Of course the experimenter must know varieties to 

 a greater or less extent. A man must know his 

 letters before he begins to read. But he is not 

 called upon to pass an opinion upon every one, to 

 give it a definite mark which he will probably want 

 to modify with every crop. It is only in species 

 which he is studying in a wider spirit, with some 

 ulterior motive, that he need to know all the tech- 

 nique of varieties. The station should grow a 

 general assortment of the most prominent fruits 

 and vegetables, perhaps, for the benefit of those 

 who visit the station, and to enable students to 

 become familiar with them — for most of the stations 

 are connected with colleges. And as often as the 

 officer acquires definite information concerning any 

 variety or set of varieties, let him send a note of it 

 to the press. Or let some assistant or some 

 specially competent student observe and compare 

 the sorts and use the results where he pleases. The 

 experimenter himself, if he is an experii7ienter, can- 

 not afford to publish mere variety tests, unless they 

 are a part of a more permanent investigation or of 

 more general studies. 



REFORM in nomenclature of 

 varieties makes little pro- 



AND REFORM. „, , , , ^, 



gress. The blame for the 

 trifling results is commonly laid at the door of com- 



mittees or men having the matter in charge, but 

 it is oftener chargeable to hostility on the part of 

 the trades. To institute a reform in the names of 

 varieties demands a strong sympathy for the move- 

 ment among all dealers and introducers. It means 

 that plantsmen desire to adhere rigidly to rules of 

 priority, and that they abstain from the use of 

 fustian, bombast and misrepresentation in the 

 names they employ. Numbers of dealers are not 

 desirous of taking this step ; in fact they are hostile 

 to it, although, from the nature of the case, their 

 hostility assumes the outward form of indifference. 

 Here is, undoubtedly, the reason why the trade or- 

 ganizations, cannot push the reform more vigor- 

 ously. No better proof of this is needed than the 

 fact that these attempts at reform usually originate 

 with disinterested parties and are pushed to comple- 

 tion by organizations distinct from the trade societies. 



We understand that there are difficulties in the 

 way of correct nomenclature wholly aside from the 

 indifference and opposition of those who, in the 

 end, would be most benefitted by it. There are few 

 among us yet who have sufficient knowledge of 

 species and of plant variation to attempt a perma- 

 nent reform. This is particularly true, perhaps, 

 in ornamentals. Study can overcome these difficul- 

 ties, however, but hostility must grow old and die. 



But the foundations ai'e laid. The work of the 

 American Pomological Society is inspiring, notwith- 

 standing the fact that few dealers and catalogues 

 adopt it. The endeavors of this society have com- 

 manded attention largely because correct lists of 

 names have been printed in the fruit catalogue, and 

 so have been kept before the public. An actual list 

 of names must attend all efforts of this character, 

 for reform does not come from talking about it, nor 

 from formulating bare rules. 



The Society of American Florists is also making 

 progress, although its work lies in synonymy rather 

 than in nomenclature proper. But the moral effect 

 of its labor, under its energetic chairman, must 

 have a wholesome moral effect. 



The most complete and sweeping reform ever 

 attempted is in the names of garden vegetables, a 

 movement which began and ended within a single 

 year. The name of every vegetable known to be 

 sold in the United States is passed upon, and the 

 full revision is printed. The work attracts little 

 attention now, but the time will come when that list 

 will be appreciated. But we do not look for it 

 soon ; the trade must be purged before reform can 

 thrive. When the catalogues have burned themselves 

 up with their flaming colors, we shall hope to resur- 

 rect from their ashes a thing of greater substance. 



