PROMISING WILD FRUITS— I. 



THE OUTLOOK. 



REAT as has been the progress of 

 pomology in this country with- 

 in the past fifty years, the peo- 

 ple of the United States are 

 still scantily supplied with 

 fruits. The European species, 

 which have been our main de- 

 pendence hitherto, are only 

 adapted, and that in some cases but imperfectly, to 

 the Atlantic and Pacific slopes and limited portions 

 of the interior. In the greater portion of the fertile 

 prairie belt, extending from the gulf to the British 

 line, and still more in the arid region westward, 

 which comprises nearly one-half the total area of 

 the United States, the successful cultivation of fruit 

 is practically unknown. The whole of this interior 

 region, however, as well as the more fertile borders 

 fed by the waters of the two oceans, abounds with 

 native fruits as full of promise to the intelligent 

 cultivator as any of those from which our well- 

 known fruits of commerce have sprung. Even in 

 the driest and hottest regions along the Mexican 

 border more than a hundred species of cacti are 

 found, a majority of which have edible fruits, some 

 of them of delicious flavor. 



The development already made in our native fruits is 

 only a beginning of what the future will show. The 

 improvement of our native grapes, gooseberries, rasp- 

 berries, etc., has been brought about by the partial or 

 complete failure of foreign varieties ; and our increas- 

 ing population, and the failures in fruit raising, owing 

 to the peculiar climate and soil in the newer states, and 

 to the destruction of the forests in the older sections of 

 the country, will lead to the improvement and cultiva- 

 tion of other native American fruits. Already we see 

 a marked increase in the attention given to our native 

 plums, and the time is probably not far distant when 

 our markets, east as well as west, will be mainly sup- 

 plied with plums derived from American species. Our 

 cultivated raspberries and blackberries, which have 

 been developed from the wild state within the memory 

 of most of us, are destined to still further improvement. 

 Our wild huckleberries, which are gathered in enormous 

 quantities in some of the northern states, will soon be 

 nearly gone, and then some of them will be brought 

 under cultivation. Our wild cherries have hardly been 

 thought of as subjects for improvement ; yet some of 

 them are better than the originals of the cherries we 

 now grow. 



No other country is blessed by nature with greater re- 



sources in the way of wild fruits than the United States. 

 Had the early settlers who came to this country been 

 prevented from bringing any of the cultivated fruits of 

 Europe with them, and had they relied for their fruits 

 solely on what their intelligence and energy could make 

 of the wild fruits found growing here, it is not improb- 

 able that this country, young as it is, would be better 

 supplied with valuable varieties of fruit than it now is. 

 Certain it is that the prolonged effort to cultivate for- 

 eign fruits has been the greatest hindrance to the devel- 

 opment of our native resources in that direction ; and 

 as a rule it is only where the foreign kinds have failed 

 that the possibilities existing in our native species have 

 become known. Whatever shall be made in the future 

 from our remaining wild fruits will depend not so much 

 on the possibilities of each species as on the need of the 

 people for other fruits to meet the .requirements of dif- 

 ferent soils, seasons and purposes. 



The beginning of improvement may be seen in almost 

 any of our wild fruits. Professor Asa Gray well ob- 

 served that "There occur in nature the same kinds of 

 variation as those to which we owe our cultivated fruits, 

 etc. ; that such originate not rarely in nature, and de- 

 velop to a certain extent, enough to show the same cause 

 operating in free as in controlled nature ; enough to 

 show the cultivator what he should take in hand." But 

 the improvement of fruits is a slow process, especially 

 at the beginning. It is easier to get along with what we 

 have than to spend time in the doubtful effort to obtain 

 something better. Especially is this true in this coun- 

 try, where so many profitable avenues of labor are open. 



Another cause which now retards the production of 

 new varieties is the systematic propagation and dissem- 

 ination of established varieties by nurserymen. The 

 modern nursery, with its methods of reaching every 

 portion of the land, renders it no longer necessary for 

 the settler to plant seeds if he would have fruit. For 

 this reason fewer new varieties come into existence now 

 than formerly. Such valuable new varieties as do ap- 

 pear are quickly disseminated, but it is doubtful if there 

 is at present in the United States much more real pro- 

 gress in pomology than a quarter of a century ago. 



There has never been anything like the systematic, 

 well directed and protracted effort toward the improve- 

 ment of fruit that has been exercised in the improve- 

 ment of domestic animals. There has, also, been lack- 

 ing suitable standards of excellence by which to estab- 

 lish or condenin new varieties. Indeed, owing to the 

 modifying influence of soil and climate upon varieties, 

 the proper rating of a new fruit is by no means easy. 

 Both the improvement and the testing of new varieties 

 requires a careful and prolonged attention which the 



