I:.\1S1NG FUUITS FKOM SKED. 



valuable aiul nntivo varieties of fruit ; and they point to the fulfilment of the prediction 

 the cck'hratcd Van i[oN8, "that the time will come when our best fruits will ho derived 

 from seedlings." lie gives the following sage counsel to his correspondents, to whom he 

 had sent trees : '■'■ Sow your seed and j'crsircre without intcrrujdioii^ and you will obtain 

 (ten litter fruit titan mine.'" 



" Among i)ioneers in this department, I am htippy to notice a gentleman, (now residing 

 among us) the pupil and friend of Van Moss, one who lias adoi)ted our country as his 

 future home, and Avho has already transplanted to our soil many thousand choice seedlings 

 of the Pear wliich have come into his possession from the collections of that gentleman and 

 the celebrated Esperex. 



"As to the best method of producing fine varieties from seed, the opinions of distin- 

 guished pomologists are not uniform. 



"DuiiAiiEL, among the French, fi-om causes which seem to us irreconcilable with nature 

 and experience, entertained serious doubts of the practicability of any method for obtain- 

 ing new and valuable varieties from seed, especially of the Pear, because he had tried 

 various experiments without success, for fifty years. 



"Dr. Yax Mox3, of Belgium, instead of saving the seed of the Jinest varieties, selected 

 those of inferior sorts, upon the principle that a kind having arrived at the highest state 

 of perfection must deteriorate, while an inferior one would improve by successive repro- 

 ductions. He also held that hybridization tended to degeneracy and imperfection. Thus 

 he assumes the doctrine that a perfect variety necessarily deteriorates, and also overlooks 

 the fact observed by other distinguished men, that the improvement or deterioration of 

 which he speaks, may result from natural impregnation by the pollen of other varieties 

 conveyed by the air or insects, and therefore that the seed of a good variety may produce 

 either a better or a worse, and that of a bad either a worse or a better. 



" Mr. Knight's system of obtaining new and improved varieties, depended entirely on 

 hybridization or artificial impregnation so lightly esteemed by Dr. Y&s Mons. This is 

 somewhat difficult to practice on account of natural fertilization by insects and the wind ; 

 but it has the merit of depending on a truly philosophical principle, and with very particu- 

 lar attention may yet prove as available for the improvement of our fruits as it lias for the 

 production of fine varieties in the vegetable and floral kingdom, or as the corresponding 

 principle has in the crossing of the breeds of domestic animals. 



"The results of ilr. Kxigiit's experience disprove the tendency to degeneracy, inasmuch 

 as many of his fruits, obtained by hybridization, are among the most durable and hardy 

 varieties, as the Eycwood and Dunmore Pears; the £lacl Eagle, and other Cherries, 



"Many cultivators, as Espeeex, Bitoet, Berckmaks, and others, both in this and foreign 

 countries, have sown seeds in variety, and have obtained some valuable sorts. But I am 

 confirmed in the opinion, that the best means of producing new and excellent varieties, 

 suited either to general cultivation or to particular localities, is to plant the most mature 

 a-ul perfect seed of the most hardy, tifjorous, and taluuMe sorts ; on the general pathologi- 

 cal principle that like produces like, and upon the conviction that immature seed, although 

 the embryo may be sufficiently formed to vegetate, yet not having all its elements in perfec- 

 tion, it will not produce a vigorous and healthy oflispring. Dr. Lindlet, commenting upon 

 this practice, justly remarks: "All experience shows that in every kind of created thing, 

 be it man or beast, or bird, the mysterious principle, called life, remains during the whole 

 period of existence what it was at first. If vitality is feeble in the beginning, so it remains 

 Weak parents produce weak children, and their children's children are weaker still, 

 perial dynasties have sadly shown." "With him we believe this theory as applicable 



