234 ARID AGRICULTURE. 



natural accidental changes rather than to im- 

 provements by men through the use of plant 

 breeding. 



EARLY While the great impetus to plant breeding 



dates back only to the publication of Darwin's 

 "Origin of Species/' in 1859, some breeders had 

 done considerable work over one hundred years 

 previous to that. Most of this work consisted of 

 selection only, to separate out, or pedigree the 

 elementary species which had originated acci- 

 dentally, probably through mutations, or 

 "sports" arising in ordinary farm culture. A 

 few of the more important names are those of 

 Yon Mons, who began to experiment in 1785. 

 and in 1823 had 20,000 seedling trees in his 

 "Nursery of Fidelity," in Holland. He gave 

 his attention almost wholly to pears, and created 

 important new varieties of fruit. Professor 

 Bailey has given \ 7 on Mons credit for being the 

 earliest apostle for selection and amelioration of 

 plants. 



Another early explorer in the field of plant 

 breeding was Joseph Cooper of New Jersey, who 

 in 1799 called attention to the fact that "Change 

 of seed is not necessary to prevent degeneracy." 

 He originated the Cooper plum and some other 

 plants of importance. At the same time, An- 

 drew Knight, in England, took up studies to de- 

 termine the best means to improve plants. Tn 

 1806 he wrote: "New varieties of every species 



