The National Nurseryman. 
FOR GROWERS AND DEALERS IN NURSERY STOCK. 
Copyright, 1893 , by The National Nurseryman Publishing Co. 
VOL. II. ROCHESTER, N. Y., MARCH, 1894. NO. 2. 
are: nove:ltie:s worth thehr cost? 
Professor L. H. Bailey, of Cornell University, read the 
following paper, entitled, “ Are Novelties Worth Their 
Cost ? ” before the W. N. Y. Horticultural Society : 
“ It is a perennial question, this asking if novelties pay, 
and yet it is never settled. The manner of answering the 
question seems always to be the same : The respondent cites 
his own experience with the new varieties, with an inclina¬ 
tion to dwell most upon those which he considers to be dis¬ 
honest or unworthy ; and so it comes that there are as many 
opinions of the ‘ novelty question ’ — as the discussion has 
come to be called — as there are persons who try to answer 
it, with a tendency, always, to decry the introduction of new 
things. It is evident that the fundamental merits of the 
question can never be determined from individual experience 
of a certain number of novelties, for it is rare if any two 
experiences agree upon even the same variety. If there is 
not some broader scientific basis of judgment, the question 
may as well be dropped forever. 
“ What we really need to ask is this ; Is there a constant 
tendency for new varieties to surpass the old? Or, in other 
words, have we reached the limit of improvement and evo¬ 
lution in any species of plant ? Before attempting a direct 
answer to these questions, we shall need to consider for a 
moment if varieties are pre-limited in duration or if they 
‘ run out,’ for if they do pass away, new varieties must take 
their places, or the cultivated type of the species would 
cease to exist. Or, to state the proposition differently, if 
varieties run out, the species can be rescued from oblivion 
only by new forms ; but inasmuch as all valuable cultivated 
plants constantly tend to increase in extent of cultivation, 
if follows either that they do not run out, or that new 
varieties are better than the old and drive them out. And 
yet there are persons who hold tenaciously to both dogmas 
— that varieties run out and that novelties do not pay — 
without seeing the logical result of such opinion is to drive 
the cultivated flora from the face of the earth. Now it is 
true that the varities of any plant are, as a whole, constantly 
changing, as one may prove by comparing the catalogues 
and manuals of a generation ago with those of to-day. 
These changes are most rapid in plants of shortest duration, 
or those in which there has been the greatest number of 
generations, showing that the greater the opportunity for 
renewa! of stock the greater is the variation and number of 
recorded varieties. Ehus the apples of to-day are as much 
like those of a century ago as the strawberries of to-day 
are like those of ten years ago, and there is about the same 
number of generations in the one case as in the other. 
This means, as I said before, that the rate of change in 
named varieties is in proportion to the length of life or 
profitable duration of the species. This at once raises a 
strong presumption that varieties do not wear out from mere 
age, but that they pass out in the process of reproduction 
or regeneration ; and as varieties of standard merit are more 
numerous in all plants now than they were a century or 
even a human generation ago, it must follow that new 
varieties have been appearing all these years which were 
good enough to obtain the confidence of all careful growers. 
In two papers which I have presented to this society, I have 
shown, I think, that varieties do not wear out; but all plants 
which are habitually propagated by seeds, as garden vege¬ 
tables and flowers, tend constantly to change or differ from 
their parents and finally to pass so far away from them that 
they receive new names, and plants which are propagated 
from cuttings of abnormally developed parts, as the potato, 
constantly tend to deteriorate unless grown and selected 
under the very best conditions ; but all plants propagated 
from normal or unvariable parts, as by ordinary cuttings, 
scions and layers, remain sub.stantially the same from century 
to century, as it is the actual case in several prominent 
orchard fruits. If the orchard fruits do not run out, there¬ 
fore, the only reason why the varieties should change is be¬ 
cause better ones appear and drive them out; and inasmuch 
as it is a matter of common knowledge that change does 
take place, it follows that profitable novelties have appeared. 
“ Up to this time, therefore, novelties, or at least many of 
them, have paid. Is there any reason for supposing that 
they will not pay equally well in the future? Or, to raise 
my original question, is profitable variation no longer pos¬ 
sible ? This question is not new and there is no special 
reason for asking it at the present time. It is certainly as old 
as commercial horticulture; and, for all I know, Noah, 
when driving the animals into the ark, may have asked if so 
many varieties paid. If nov''elties have furnished all ad¬ 
vancement up to the present time, it would seem that they 
must continue doing so in the future, and the only reason 
for discussing the question at all must be a prevalent belief 
that varieties are now so many and so good that the limit of 
profitable evolution has been reached. 
“ I have said that all advancement in types of cultivated 
plants has come about through the origination and introduc¬ 
tion of new forms. It is necessary, then, that this advance¬ 
ment be defined. A novelty does not nece.s.sarily need to 
SLirpa.s.s every or even any old \'ariety in oidei that it may 
