1 8 THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 



1765-1842, was a pharmacist, physicist, and physician, one of the savants 

 of his time, who, late in the eighteenth century, under the potent spell cast 

 by Hardenpont's work, began to breed pears. Space forbids an account of 

 Van Mons' experiments. Suffice to say that he introduced more than two 

 scores of pears having lasting merit, and that in the height of his career 

 he had in his " Nursery of Fidelity " at Louvain, eighty thousand seedlings. 

 Van Mons outlives in fame the Belgian pear-breeders of his time because 

 he propounded a theory for the origination of new varieties of plants, and 

 this in its turn is famed as the first complete system of plant improvement. 

 Van Mons contributed but little of direct value to plant-breeding, but indi- 

 rectly he gave a great impetus to breeding pears and to the culture of the 

 pear, more especially in America, and we must therefore glance at his theory 

 and trace more in detail its influence on American pear-growing. 



Van Mons' theory, in brief, as expounded in various papers, is: A 

 species does not vary in the place in which it is born; it reproduces only 

 plants which resemble itself. The causes of variation are changes in soil, 

 climate, or temperature. Whenever a species produces one or many 

 varieties, these varieties continue to vary always. The source of all varia- 

 tion, which is transmissible by sowing, resides in the seeds. The older a 

 variety, the less the seedlings vary, and the more they tend to return toward 

 the primitive form, without being able ever to reach that state; the younger 

 or newer the variety, the more the seedlings vary. 



In putting his theory in practice Van Mons took the first seeds from 

 wild plants or those little improved, from which he grew seedlings, and 

 from these the seeds were taken from the first fruits to ripen for new sowings. 

 This practice he repeated generation after generation. Thus, it is seen 

 that Van Mons was an early apostle of selection. He is said to have 

 distributed over 400 varieties, about 40 of which are still under cultivation. 

 It is to be feared, however, that Van Mons' theory was preconceived with- 

 out experiment or even observation for a foundation. He devoted a life 

 of most admirable zeal to verifying and developing this vision of his early 

 years with some material reward it is true, but with a better foundation 

 his prodigious labors would have yielded greater direct results in improving 

 the pear. Still, the indirect results, his influence on the pomologists of 

 two continents, even though they did not subscribe to his theories, was 

 more valuable than the work of one mind and one pair of hands could 

 possibly have been. 



There must always be pioneers, men who stray from beaten paths, 



