320 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



till the beginning of June. They may then be planted out in light, rich soil ; and the proba- 

 bility is they will be three feet high by autumn. 



We have October and November pears without end ; their names are legion, and serve to 

 create distaste rather than a wish for a collection of pears. To raise new and fine late pears, 

 a word or two as to the selection of proper kinds as parents may not be amiss. That fine, 

 large, late pear, Leon le Clerc de Laval, reckoned a baking pear, but which in May and June 

 becomes soft and agreeable, should be crossed with the Winter Nelis, the most delicious of all 

 our winter pears. The Eastern Beurre may be crossed with Beurre d'Aremberg, always vinous' 

 and racy ; the Triomphe de Jodoigne may be crossed with the Josephine de Malines; and so on. 

 There are two methods by which fertilization may be brought about, in one of which chance 

 is in a certain extent trusted to. This is by training the bearing branches of two pear-trees 

 on a wall so that the blossoms are mingled, or planting two pyramids of the two kinds of 

 pears selected in a situation far removed from any others. The certain method is to select a 

 blossoming spur, or rather say a bunch of blossoms, and a day or two before they expand re- 

 move all the anthers, cover the blossoms with a fine piece of muslin, and the following day 

 fertilize the flowers with the pollen of the variety fixed upon to cross with. This is done sim- 

 ply by finding some flowers in full bloom, with the pollen perfect, and placing them on the 

 blossoms under the muslin cover, closing it immediately, and tying it securely, so as to pre- 

 vent the ingress of bees. To those who have inclination or leisure, this occupation will be 

 found of much interest ; and to those who have not, the chance method will be equally so. 



The theory and practice of the late Van Mons, which for so many years has made such a 

 noise on the Continent, has been given in American works on fruits ; but I may, I trust, be 

 allowed to repeat it in as few words as possible. He commenced by sowing the seeds of some 

 hardy, inferior pear, and, as soon as the trees bore fruit, he sowed the pips from them, wait- 

 ing again till the second generation bore fruit, from the pips of which he raised trees, and so 

 on for several generations. He gave out to the world that by this method he raised all his 

 best pears, and that those of the last generations were nearly all good. This seems to be in 

 unison with the well-known fact that cultivation brings on amelioration ; but his assertion 

 that by thus raising successive generations his last seedlings became so fruitful as to bear 

 some years earlier than the first, or those raised in the ordinary way, was a delusion, brought 

 on, I suppose, by enthusiasm. That some out of his many thousands of seedling pears would 

 bear fruit some years before others, I have no doubt ; but that it resulted from the system, 

 was an error. 



I am also inclined to think that his system of amelioration by successive generations, 

 although on paper attractive and interesting, was slow and uncertain, for the following reason : 

 Some few years since, I was travelling in Belgium, and paid a visit to the garden of the late 

 Major Esperen. I learned that he had no system of raising pears, but that he sowed seed 

 according to his fancy, and trusted to chance. I was surprised to find that he had raised, in a 

 comparatively small garden, and out of a small number of seedlings, such pears as Josephine 

 de Malines, Bergamotte d' Esperen, Fondante de Noel, Fondante de Malines, and some others. I 

 afterwards saw the vast collection of Van Mons's thousands of large trees raised from seed 

 after his system, and among them all it may be safely said that there was not one variety to 

 surpass, or even equal, the two first-named varieties raised by chance. To chance also, and 

 not to this much vaunted-of system, we owe such pears as Marie Louise, Glout Morceau, Beurrt 

 Ranee, Beurre d'Aremberg, and, above all, Winter Nelis; so that we may console ourselves with 

 the idea that chance is very liberal, and the system of Van Mons not so ; for, after a whole 

 lifetime devoted to it, it failed to give him five pears to surpass the above, or one to equal the 

 last-named. I remember feeling assured, when first I heard Van Mons talk of his theory, 

 that it was not tenable ; for, if amelioration was progressive in seedlings raised in successive 

 generations without crossing, and if in like manner fertility was increased by it, the peach- 

 orchards in America would give fruit all perfect in quality, and of wonderful fertility, for 

 the peaches in some of the States are raised, generation after generation, from the stones. 

 What wonders the fortieth generation of peach-trees ought to be ! They should bear fruit 

 even the first year from seed. Among the hundreds of varieties of pears with the name of 

 Van Mons attached to them, there are some very good, although by far too many are sorts 



