396 
/ 
considered that the morello cherry offered a wide field for improvement, 
that there might be raised from it in a few generations of seedlings with 
suitable culture, varieties yielding large and sweet fruit. There is little 
doubt that the red currant may be made much sweeter and larger. At¬ 
tempts should also be made to improve one or two of the native goose- 
. berries, say Ribes hirtellum and R. rob undifolium; it appears to me use¬ 
less to experiment with varieties of English origin; the climate is evi¬ 
dently too bright and dry for the English gooseberry, as it is for the 
English hawthorn, rendering them both sickly and a prey to parasitic 
fungi. We have few hardy varieties of the raspberry, it would be well 
to improve the native raspberry by crossing it in the first instance with 
the more tender but superior cultivated varieties. 
Gardening has ever been considered to be one of the most delightful 
amusements which can occupy the leisure hours of man; but pleasant as 
the ordinary cultivation of plants may be, it is a tame and monotonous 
pursuit, compared with the pleasure to be derived by raising new kinds 
of perennial flowers or fruit from seed. The comparative uncertainty 
of the results of our experiments has its charms. In ordinary gardening, 
we know that the flowers and fruit of next summer will be like those of 
the summer that is past—differing it may be a little as the season is pro¬ 
pitious or otherwise; but from the moment a seedling springs from the 
soil to the time it produces its flowers or fruit, it is an object of great in¬ 
terest, and a source of much speculation to the experimenter ; more mind 
is in the work than in ordinary gardening, greater skill is required, more 
correct habits of observation, and a more intimate and extensive know¬ 
ledge of cause and effect. There is doubtless ample room for improve¬ 
ment yet; more valuable varieties of grain, fruit and vegetables than any 
we now possess,^ will yet be obtained. 
A very short time would be required to disseminate widely, seeds of 
improved varieties of grain, or of our chief root crops, turnips, parsnips 
and carrots. Within twelve years from the time of proving the fruit an 
improved variety might be introduced into every garden of the United 
States, and in a country where fruit growing is a matter of so much im¬ 
portance, it must be a source of gratification to the successful experi¬ 
mentalist to be conscious that, even by his amusement, he may have con¬ 
tributed to some extent, to the welfare of his country and fellow men. 
