86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



logues of the first part of the present century, we may well be 

 proud of our actual knowledge. From the days of Henry 

 IV. of France, when his favorite Bon Chretien was almost 

 the only good pear, from the time of Queen Elizabeth, who sent 

 to Holland to obtain lettuce for her royal table, down to the 

 present century, there has been a gradual advance ; but in our 

 day, it has indeed been astonishing, and still our course is 

 onward and upward. 



We have long since discarded the inferior fruits of La Quin- 

 tinye, the skilful gardener of Louis XIV. We have few 

 pears left of the celebrated catalogue of the Royal Garden of 

 Versailles, and by the action of our own association we have 

 rejected more than one hundred varieties as unworthy of per- 

 petuation. At present, who would give a place in his garden 

 to such pears as the Chatbrule, the Martin Sec, the Messire 

 Jean, the Bourdon, the Lansac, the Cassolette, and a host of 

 other worthless sorts ? Some good fruits have survived, as the 

 White Doyenne, Madeline, Jargonelle, and others, but a part of 

 these only are suited to general cultivation ; yet how limited 

 their number, and how inferior their quality, when compared 

 with our choice modern seedlings, and the royal profusion of 

 fruits which now crown our tables. 



When Van Mons, the patient and skilful observer, was suc- 

 cessfully experimenting in Europe, our Coxe, Prince, Lowell, 

 Dearborn, Manning and others, had commenced their course, 

 and obtained some good results. Then most of our pears were 

 propagated on suckers taken from the forest; now we see 

 millions of young vigorous trees cultivated, sold and jDlanted 

 in all parts of the Union, and where twenty years since not a 

 single specimen of the Pyrus was to be found. The public no 

 longer ridicule the man who plants a tree with the hope ol 

 gathering its fruit with his own hands, or the saving of seeds 

 to improve the quality of his fruits. True, Van Mons was 

 ridiculed all his life, and only appreciated by such pioneers as 

 Davy, Poiteau, Deil, and Drapiez. His nurseries were thrice 

 destroyed, as wild, worthless thorn bushes, under the false pre- 

 tence of " public utility." This was an irreparable loss, for 

 however much his system be discussed and distrusted, it is still 

 true that the results of his experience have been most beneficial 

 to the world. 



