80 



The Van Mons Theory. 



Vou X. 



The Van Mons Theory. 



Dr. Van Mons, Professor at Lou vain, 

 devoted the greater part of his life to the 

 amelioration of fi-uits. His nurseries con- 

 tained in 1823, no less than two thousand 

 seedlings of merit. His perseverance was 

 indefatigable, and experimenting mainly on 

 Pears, he succeeded in raising an immense 

 number of new varieties of high excellence. 

 The Beurre Diel, De Louvain, P"'rederic of 

 Wurtemberg, &c., are a few of the many 

 well known sorts which are the result of his 

 unwearied labours. 



The Van Mons theory may be briefly 

 stated as follows : 



All fine fruits are artificial products; the 

 aim of nature, in a wild state, being only a 

 healthy, vigorous state of the tree, and per- 

 fect seeds for continuing the species. It is 

 the object of culture, therefore, to subdue, 

 or enfeeble this excess of vegetation ; to 

 lessen the coarseness of the tree; to dimin- 

 ish the size of the seeds; and to refine the 

 quality and increase the size of the flesh or 

 pulp. 



There is always a tendency in our varie- 

 ties of fruit trees to return by their seeds 

 towards a wild state. 



This tendency is most strongly shown in 

 Ithe seeds borne by old fruit trees. And 

 ^'the older the tree is of any cultivated va- 

 riety of Pear," says Dr. Van Mons, "the 

 nearer will the seedlings, raised from it, ap- 

 proach a wild state, without however, ever 

 ibeing able to return to that state." 



On the other hand, the seeds of a young 

 fryit tree of a good sort, being itself in the 

 gtate of amelioration, have the least tend- 

 ency to retrograde, and are the most likely 

 to produce improved sorts.. 



Again, there is a certain limit to perfec- 

 tion in fruits. When this point is reached, 

 as in the finest varieties, the next genera- 

 tion will more probably produce bad fruit, 

 than if reared from seeds of an indifferent 

 sort, in the course of amelioration. While, 

 in other words, the seeds of the oldest va^ 

 rieties of good fruit mostly yield inferior 

 sorts, seeds taken from recent varieties of 

 bad fruit, and reproduced uninterruptedly 

 for several generations, will certainly pro 

 duce good fruit. 



With these premises, Dr. Van Mons be 

 gins by gathering his seeds from a young 

 seedling tree, without paying much regard 

 to its quality, except that it must be in a 

 stale of variation ; that is to say, a garden 

 variety, and not a wild sort. These he 

 BOWS in a seed-bed or nursery, whore he 

 leaves the seedlings until they attain suffi- 

 cient 6iz;e to enable him to judge of their 



character. He then selects those which 

 appear the most promising, plants them a 

 few feet distant in the nursery, and awaits 

 their fruit. Not discouraged at finding most 

 of them of medium quality, though difl^er- 

 ing from the parent, he gathers the first 

 seeds of the most prom.ising and sows them 

 again. The next generation comes more 

 rapidly into bearing than the first, and shows 

 a greater number of promising traits. Ga- 

 thering immediately, and sowing the seeds 

 of this generation, he produces a third, then 

 a fourth, and even a fifth generation, unin- 

 terruptedly, from the original sort. Each 

 generation he finds to come more quickly 

 into bearing than the previous one, — the 

 fifth sowing of pears fruiting at three years, 

 — and to produce a greater number of valu- 

 able varieties; until in the. fifth generation 

 the seedlings are nearly a^i of great excel- 

 lence. 



Dr. Van Mons found the pear to require 

 the longest time to attain perfection, and he 

 carried his process with this fruit through 

 five generations. Apples he found needed 

 but four races, and peaches, cherries, plums, 

 and other stone fruits, were brought to per- 

 fection in three successive reproductions 

 from the seed. 



It will be remembered that it is a leading 

 feature in this theory that, in order to im- 

 prove the fruit, we must subdue or enfeeble 

 the original coarse luxuriance of the tree. 

 Keeping this in mind, Dr. Van Mons always 

 gathers his fruit before fully ripe, and allows 

 them to rot before planting the seeds, in 

 order to refine or render less wild and harsh 

 the next generation. In transplanting the 

 young seedlings into quarters to bear, he 

 cuts off the tap root, and he annually short- 

 ens the leading and side branches, besides 

 planting them only a few feet apart. All 

 this lessens the vigor of the trees, and pro- 

 duces an impression upon the nature of the 

 seeds which will be produced by their first 

 fruit; and, in order to continue in full force 

 the progressive variation, he allows his seed- 

 lings to bear on their own roots.* 



Such is Dr. Van Mons' theory and method 

 for obtaining new varieties of fruit. It has 

 never obtained much favour in England, and 

 from the length of time necessary to bring 



■ "I have found this art to consist in regenerating 

 in a direct line of descent, and as rapidly as possible 

 nn improving variety, taking care that there be no in- 

 terval between the generations. To sots', to re-sow, 

 to sow again, to sow perpetually, in short, to do no- 

 thing but sow, is the practice to be pursued, and vihich 

 cannot be departed from; and in short this is the whole 

 secret of the art I have employed."— Van Mons' ./3rJrcs 

 Fruilicrs, 1. p. 2^3. 



