DEGENERATION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. 81 



The pear trees grown from seeds which were planted by the 

 earlier settlers of this country were of a robust habit of growth, 

 attaining large size and great age, and have outlived many gener- 

 ations of men ; and of those known to have borne fruit as early 

 as 1663 some are still alive. The pear tree is indigenous in sec- 

 tions of the northern temperate zone, flourishing as far north as 

 the fifty-seventh degree of latitude, and is grown in this country 

 from the British Provinces to Mexico. In acchmating and grow- 

 ing the pear in a warmer climate, its primitive habit of long life 

 seems to be partly lost. Growers long since abandoned planting 

 the seeds from the original fruit, using instead the seeds of the 

 engrafted sorts, which are of a more tender habit ; b^^ this prac- 

 tice breeding into the pear tree an inherent tendency to shortness 

 of life. The continued process of engrafting and forcing by high 

 cultivation and also growing in an impoverished soil — each and 

 all may exert some influence in the direction of degeneracy ; and 

 it is certainly evident that the trees are everywhere tending to 

 earlier fruitage and shorter life. 



The almost universal practice of propagating desirable sorts by 

 engrafting or budding has undoubtedly the effect of gradually, 

 but surely, working a serious injurj^ to some fruit-bearing trees. 

 The tendency of continuously planting the seeds of improved 

 sorts is very much the same as what is called in cattlemen's par- 

 lance "in-and-in breeding," which if long continued in a given line 

 is a sure and constant cause of degeneration. 



Now, if the tree from any cause is losing its natural stamina 

 and force, or becomes defective or diseased, the weakening of its 

 natural functions very soon becomes manifest in the fruit. The 

 St. Michael, in its day the glory of the pears, has now become 

 wholly unworthy of cultivation. Sometimes it seems to recuperate 

 in new countries and thrives for a time in a virgin soil, but soon 

 relapses into its now normal condition. The Flemish Beauty 

 affords another illustration of degenerating tendency. It was first 

 brought into notice in 1834, and promised well for many years, 

 but has now become unworthy of continued cultivation. 



In the catalogue of trees grown in the nursery of the late Wil- 

 liam Kenrick in the year 1838 (he being then one of the promi- 

 nent nurserymen in Massachusetts) I find, in the class termed 

 " Old Pears," twelve sorts of which not one has been shown on 

 this Society's tables for years. In class second, termed " New 

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