THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 1 9 



but pioneers seldom exert wide and deep influence at once — leave the worn 

 path, so to speak, and at once construct a macadamized road — yet this 

 was what Van Mons did. Pomologists agree that until his time no man 

 had exerted so profound an influence on pomology. His love of discovery 

 and love of labor permeated fruit-growing in Europe and America. 

 Fortunately, it was the age of the amateur fruit-grower. Pleasure and 

 progress, driven by curiosity, counted for more than commercial success, 

 so that Van Mons' new varieties at once gave him wide fame. He was 

 made known to American pear-growers by Robert Manning who distributed 

 his new varieties in this country and described them in the horticultural 

 literature of the day and in his Book of Fruits published in 1838. Later, 

 Andrew Jackson Downing, the brilliant genius of American horticulture, 

 published Van Mons' theories and described many of his new pears in 

 his Fruits and Fruit Trees, which came from the press in 1845. Thus, 

 Van Mons became the recognized authority in America on all matters 

 relating to the pear. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that we owe 

 him obligations as the founder of pear-culture in this country. 



But the work of the Belgians does not end with Van Mons. There 

 were other breeders of pears, who, though not to be classed with Van Mons 

 as a Titan, lacking the quality of mind to set forth a new philosophy, helped 

 to enliven the impulse given by their leader to the improvement of the 

 pear by originating new varieties. Chief of these are Major Esperen, of 

 Malines, who introduced twenty of the pears mentioned in the Pears of 

 New York; Bivort, who has twenty-three to his credit; Gregoire, forty-two; 

 Simon Bouvier, eleven; De Jonghe, six; and De Nelis, five. While, if 

 the lists of varieties in the last two chapters of this text be scanned for 

 Belgians who introduced but one, two, or three new pears, the list runs 

 up into the hundreds. Labor finds its summit in the work of these Belgian 

 pear-breeders, who obtained petty rewards by sifting millions of seedlings 

 through the coarse meshes of the sieve of selection. We can pardon these 

 enthusiastic breeders with grace for over-zealousness in naming varieties 

 obtained with such prodigious efforts. 



THE PEAR IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 



The pear can be improved only where the pear-tree flourishes, and 

 then only when assisted by the foresight and desire of men. This happy 

 combination seems not to exist in Europe outside of Italy, France, Belgium, 

 and England. The pear flourishes along the Danube, in parts of Austria 



