DURATION OF VARIETIES. 557 



all his enthusiasm for the new sorts, is obliged to make the 

 following admission respecting the Beurre Diel pear, the most 

 vigorous and hardy here of all, " I regret to add that near Bos- 

 ton this noble fruit is liable to crack badly." We predict 

 that many of the Flemish pears originated by Van Mons will 

 become feeble, and the fruit liable to crack, in the neighbour, 

 hood of Boston, in a much less time than did the old varieties. 



And this leads us to remark here, that the hardness of any 

 variety depends greatb upon the circumstances of its origin. 

 When a new variety springs up accidentally from a healthy 

 seed in a semi-natural manner, like the Seckel, the Dix, and 

 other native sorts, it will usually prove the hardiest. It is, as it 

 were, an effort of nature to produce a new individual out of the 

 materials, in a progressive state, which garden culture has af- 

 forded. Cross-bred seedlings one parent being of a hardy 

 nature, and both healthy such as Knight's own seedlings, the 

 Monarchs and Dunmore Pear are next in hardiness. Lastly, 

 we rank varieties reared by Van Mons' method that of con- 

 tinually repeated reproductions. This, as Van Mons distinctly 

 states, is an enfeebling process without any compensating ele- 

 ment of vigour. Hence it follows as a matter of course, that 

 seedlings of the fifth or sixth generation, as are some of his 

 varieties, must in their origin be of feeble habit. Van Mons 

 himself was fully aware of this, and therefore resorted to " graft- 

 ing by copulation" in fact, root grafting well knowing that 

 on common stocks these new varieties would in light soils soon 

 become feeble and decayed. It is needless for us to add that 

 hence we consider the Belgian mode of producing new varieties 

 greatly inferior to the English one since it gives us varieties 

 often impaired in health in their very origin. 



To the continued propagation of pears upon the quince stock, 

 we attribute, mainly, the comparatively speedy decay of many 

 sorts in France, and in some sections of this country. After 

 the first few years of vigour are over, these dwarf trees become 

 weak, and bear indifferent fruit. Continued re-propagation 

 from dwarf trees increases this want of vigor, until the sort 

 loses much of its natural hardiness and vitality. This is un- 

 doubtedly the reason why the decline of varieties has been more 

 noticed in pears than any other fruit. Indeed the pear itself is a 

 long-lived fruit-tree, much more so than the apple, but this habit 

 of grafting it upon the quince has dwarfed its longevity as well 

 as its stature. Finer fruit is often produced for a time on the 

 quince stock, but the healthy habit of the variety suffers sooner 

 or later. 



The decay of varieties of the Apricot, or Peach, much 

 shorter lived trees by nature, we seldom or never hear of. Vari- 

 eties of both are now in cultivation, and in the most perfect 

 vigour of 200 years' duration. Undoubtedly this is owing to the 

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