reak of
it. There is a stability about it that satisfies; it holds its shape
till the last bite. One likes to linger on an apple, to sit by a
fireside to eat it, to munch it waiting on a log when there is no
hurry, to have another apple with which to invite a friend.

Now I am not thinking of the Ben Davis apple or any of its kind. I do
not want to be doomed to one variety of apple, or even to half a dozen
kinds, and particularly I do not want a poor one. There are enough
good apples, if we can get them. The days of the amateur fruit-growers
seem to be passing. At least we do not hear much of them in society or
in many of the meetings of horticulturists. There may be many reasons,
but two are evident: we give the public indifferent fruits, and
thereby neither educate the taste or stimulate the desire for more; we
do not provide them places from which they can get plants of many of
the choicest things. Yet on a good amateur interest in fruits depends,
in the end, the real success of commercial fruit-growing. Just now we
are trying to increase the consumption of apples, to lead the people
to eat an apple a day: it cannot be accomplished by customary
commercial methods. To eat an apple a day is a question of affections
and emotions.

We have had great riches in our varieties of apples. It has been a
vast resource to have a small home plantation of many good varieties,
each perfect in its season. The great commercial apple-growing has
been carried to high perfection of organization and care. More perfect
apples are put on the market, in proportion to numbers, than ever
before,--carefully grown and graded and handled. I have watched this
American development with growing pride. The quantity-production makes
for greater perfection of product, but it does not make for variety
and human interest, nor for high-quality varieties. We shall still
improve it. Masterful men will perfect organizations. The high
character and attainment of the commanding fruit-growers, nurserymen
and dealers are good augury for the future. But all this is not
sufficient. Quantity-production will be an increasing source of
wealth, but it cannot satisfy the soul.

The objects and productions of high intrinsic merit are preserved by
the amateur. It is so in art and letters. It is necessarily so. A body
of amateurs is an essential background to the development of science.
The late Professor Pickering, renowned astronomer, encouraged the
amateur societi