OF NATIVE VARIETIES OF FRUIT. 31 



I have not space at this moment to point out all the objections to Dr. 

 Van Mons's ingenious theory. I will only remark, that in the first place, I 

 cannot but believe his mode of obtaining new varieties unnecessarily 

 tedious, and in the second, that, by its acknowledged process of " enfee- 

 bling," trees of varieties produced by it, are not likely to be of sound and 

 healthy constitutions. 



What I Avish especially to call attention to at the present moment, is the 

 fact, that in this country, the mode generally pursued, and pursued too 

 with a good deal of success, in originating new varieties of fruit, is one 

 which is totally opposed to both Duhamel's and Van Mons's views on this 

 subject. 



"When an American fruit grower wishes to produce a new variety, of 

 excellence, he always chooses the seeds of the finest sorts within his reach. 

 I do not mean to say that he is ahvays successful ; there are circumstances 

 well known to physiologists, which preclude the probability of this. But a 

 great number of the best American fruits have been originated by planting 

 the seeds of the finest old European varieties. To give examples, we will 

 name a fruit for which the valley of the Hudson is celebrated, the Plum. 

 The late Judge Buel raised that finest of all plums, the Jefferson, from a 

 stone of the White Magnum Bonum. Mr. Lawrence, of Hudson, New 

 York, produced those two remarkable varieties, LaAvrence's Favorite, and 

 Columbia, from seeds of the Green Gage. Bleecker's Gage, the hardiest, 

 and one of the best of yellow plums, originated from a German prune pit, 

 brought from Holland. We could quote numerous illustrations of the 

 same kind relating to Apples, Pears and other fruits. 



Whatever, therefore, may be the laws of reproduction in Europe, this 

 fact can scarcely be disputed, touching the subject in America; viz. that 

 new varieties, of the very highest excellence, are, and may be, originated 

 here by planting the seeds of the finest celebrated old sorts. 



The next and most important point, seems to me this : in the main, 

 the finest varieties originated in this country are preferable for general 

 cultivation here to varieties of foreign origin. 



The fact, which lies at the bottom of this, as all practical men know, 

 is the more perfect adaptation which an indigenous variety has for the soil 

 and climate of its native country. It is needless to enlarge upon this. 

 Every person who has had experience in proving fruits, knows that, in 

 proportion as a variety has been brought, originally, from a locality^ in 

 Europe, most nearly similar to that where we would grow it, are its vigor 

 and productiveness retained in our own soil. Nay more, that certain 

 few kinds of fruit, in this country, enjoy a local reputation, in the neigh- 

 borhood of their origin, which is seldom equalled when they are cultivated 

 in widely different parts of the Union. 



Besides this, I conceive that many of the Belgian pears, originated 



