36 OUR COMMON FRUITS. 



latest introduced into America have already begun to 

 show symptoms of decay or disease. Whether it be that 

 our climate suits them better, or that our cultivators pay 

 them more attention, the pears of Belgium succeed better 

 in England, and are found much hardier than those of 

 either France or Jersey, which seldom thrive here, or at 

 least are very precarious. Yet though both England and 

 America have gladly availed themselves of the result of 

 v Van Mons' labours, the process which he pursued has 

 never found much favour with us, and still less with our 

 more impatient and " go-a-head " cousins, so long a time 

 being required before any result can be expected. Some 

 have tried raising seedlings without observing any method, 

 but as a proof of the capriciousness of fortune in such 

 matters, a celebrated French horticulturist has recorded 

 that for fifty years he had been in the habit of planting 

 pear -pips without ever having thus produced a good 

 variety ; while, on the other hand, Major Esperen, of 

 Belgium, who simply sowed seeds indiscriminately and 

 trusted to chance, originated five or six sorts so fine as 

 to be unsurpassed by any in the Yan Mons collection. 

 In our country, however, the method introduced by Mr. 

 Knight of obtaining new kinds by means of hybridization 

 or cross-breeding, which is far less tedious, and in which, 

 too, the result can be prognosticated with some degree 

 of accuracy, has been attended with so much success that 

 there has been little temptation to resort to any other. 

 Of course, when fine kinds are once obtained, by what- 

 ever means they may have been produced, nothing more 

 is needed to perpetuate them than to continue their pro- 

 pagation to any extent by grafting ; and as with regard 

 to the hardier kinds at least Loudon assures us that the 

 best pears can be grown with no more trouble and expense 

 than inferior ones, it is to be hoped that eventually the 

 former will quite supersede the latter, and what is still 

 too exclusively a luxury for the wealthy at length be freely 

 open to all classes. 



So much attention having been directed to the multi- 

 plication of varieties, it is not surprising that they should 

 now be very numerous, and though there are still not 



