1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



525 



the barren fig-tree they have been destroyed — but 

 not without cause; for if they had not been ac- 

 cursed, their fertility and good qualities were gone; 

 and they were no longer lruitful, but as the sources 

 of vexation. 



The practiee of renaming those new, or un- 

 known varieties, whose original names are lost, 

 after these old kinds, is objectionable, inasmuch as 

 it is calculated to mislead — and to falsify the proofs 

 of their mortality. From some fancied similitude, 

 the barbarous names of antiquity are brought 

 down upon us, applied to existing varieties. From 

 semblance of name alone, the G ergon, or Jargon 

 of antiquity has reappeared — it has been reclaim- 

 ed, not merely as kindred, but as in all probability 

 identical with varieties still existing.* 



According to the theory advanced by Mr. 

 Knight and others, and confirmed by their expe- 

 rience, the different varieties of fruit have their 

 periods of existence fixed by the immutable laws 

 of nature; and after a certain time, either sooner 

 or later, comes on their decline and final extinc- 

 tion. 



I shall offer some evidence to show that the 

 complaints of defection are not confined to us 

 alone — they have reached us from other and re- 

 mote quarters. Bosc, in Nouv. Cours Complet, 

 has asserted the change — that in France many of 

 the kinds have become, from some cause, so al- 

 tered in the short space of half a century, that it is 

 sometimes difficult to know them, even in the ex- 

 act descriptions and precise engravings of Du- 

 hamel; and with regard to many kinds described 

 by Quintinie, the case is still worse. In the mar- 

 kefs of fruits and legumes at Pans, as the com- 

 missaire general has informed us in his report for 

 182S, some of these same ancient, and with us 

 once celebrated kinds, are no longer cultivated, 



its suppliesJiave given up their cultivation. ^ Like each, [about forty cents] and their cultivation is 



neglected! 



"The Rousselette, so perfumed, so sought after 

 by the confectioners, and distillers, is no longer of 

 good quality. 



How different this Rousselette from that which 

 they cultivate at the hamlet of Cormontreuil, at 

 the gate of Rheims! At that place they cultivate 

 the Rousselette almost exclusively, and these al- 

 together on espaliers. These espaliers offer at 

 the end of August a sightthe most rich and beau- 

 tiful." See Annales d'Horticulture for 1828. 



The unwearied efforts of the most distinguished 

 cultivators of France, during the latter ages, in 

 their attempts to raise new and valuable varieties 

 of fruits from the seed, appear to have been ac- 

 companied chiefly with disaster. And JV1. Poiteau 

 in one of his reports to the. Horticultural Society of 

 Paris, has asserted that the result of all their labor 

 has been "absolutely nothing." In adverting to 

 the decline of the old French varieties of pears, 

 in the vicinity of Paris, and the necessity of a re- 

 newal, he asserts that they must look elsewhere 

 for new varieties to replace the old — any where 

 else but to their own couutry. 



He informs us that the celebrated Duhamel, du- 

 ring the long course of his scientific career, plant- 

 ed the seeds of all the best fruits wbich were eaten 

 at his table, without being able to produce a single 

 fruit worthy of cultivation. Others in that coun- 

 try — as the Alfroys, had during three successive 

 generations, adopted the same course, and with no 

 better success. 



Their practice had been to plant uniformly, the 

 seeds, only of the very best or ameliorated fruits — 

 and to select from these, as the subjects of their 

 experiments, those young plants only, which were 

 furnished with large leaves, and large and fine 

 wood. M. Poiteau ascribes the disastrous results 

 of their experiments to these combined causes, 



even with them. He expresses astonishment at 



the cause— but the conclusion seems irresistible, | and further states it as a feet recorded by several 

 that with them as with us, they are no longer j authors, that the seeds of the Winter Bon Chre- 

 worthy of cultivation; and that out of that city, ! tien ahva3*s produce a detestable fruit. Mr. 

 and in its vicinity, the country around, these once | Knight has asserted that the seed of the Wild 

 famous fruits are at this day as liable to blight, I p mr fertilized by the stamens of the blossom of 



an ameliorated one, will yield a better fruit than 



and as unworthy of general cultivation as in the 

 neighborhood of Boston. 



The following are his words, extracted from his 

 report: "one is astonished on viewing in the mar- 

 kets of Paris so very few melting Pears. We no 

 longer see the Sucre Vert, the Sucre Masque, the 

 JBezi de la Motte, nor the Bezi d 1 Any [Bezi d) fie- 

 ri?'] very few Chaumontelles, very few Calotte de 

 Suisse; no Royale d^Hiver [Royal Winter,] 710 

 Virgouleuse, and what is to be deplored, no Col- 

 mars. [Some of these expressions, it seems evi- 



the seeds of an ameliorated pear. 



M. Van Mona has stated that "the Belgians 

 give no preference to the seeds of table fruits, 

 wheu they plant to obtain new ameliorated kinds." 

 Those seedlings which are without thorns, and 

 with stout wood, and large leaves, are by them re- 

 jected, as these are the signs of an early or inferior 

 fruit. M. Van Mons ascribes the success of their 

 experiments in obtaining so many fruits, which 

 are in all respects so extraordinary, to the principle 



dent from what follows, were designed Jo be un- l which they had adopted in the beginning— that in 



proportion as a fruit becomes removed from the 

 wild state, or state of nature, by repeated regene- 

 ration, or planting always the kernels or stones of 

 the last production, in that same degree will the 

 fruit become ameliorated, until it attains the high- 

 est perfection of which a fruit is susceptible. 



During the process of the amelioration, and of 

 each successive remove, the austerity, or supera- 

 bundant acid, which is the peculiar characteristic 

 of the wild fruit, is diminished, and the saccharine 

 Greculum of Macrobius; t a.ned or de- I ma ' ter is increased But as a certain quantity of 



scribed near two thousand years ago, are but one and ; aci(1 ls an essential ingredient in every perfect 

 the same; and no other than the Jargonelle of the pro- fruit— it will appear self-evident that the process 

 sent day. I of regeneration, when carried too far, may prove 



derstood only in a general sense. K.] These 

 three last species sell from ten sous to two francs 



* See t. 108 of the Pomological Magazine, where 

 the authority of Menage and Due hat, and of Merlet 

 are brought forward to justify the supposition, that the 

 Jargonelle, asserted by them to be derived from Jar- 

 gon, anciently Gergon, in Italian Gergo, in Spanish 

 Gericona, all corruptions of Grcecum, and by the in- 

 ference of Merlet the Pyrum Tarentinvm of Cato and 

 Columella, the Numidianum Grcecum of Pliny, the 



