1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



223 



Mr. Van Mons produced in the fifth generation. 

 Such arc many of our most celebrated apples, 

 plums, cherries, pears, nectarines, and especially 

 pear.?. The Andrews, Blouilgood, Cushing, J)ix, 

 Gore's Ileathcot, Harvard, Lewis, Prince, Seckcl, 

 Wilkinson, and many others, may be classed with 

 some of the best old, and newest European varie- 

 ties. 



Here then is an advanced position from whence 

 to commence the experiment which IMr. V^an 

 Mons has so long and siiccesslully |)rosecutcd. 

 Let the seeds from the fruit borne on tlie parent 

 trees of those choice varieties be jilanted, and it i.-; 

 more than probable, all the trees thus obtained, 

 would produce as good, and many of them supe- 

 rior fruits, to those of the originals; and their seeds 

 being again planted and continued liom genera- 

 tion to generation, the limit may be ascertained 

 beyond which nature will not go, in the process of 

 amelioration. At all events, taking Mr. Van 

 Mons' theory as the basis oi' the c.xt)erimentj we 

 have the advantage of the generations which pre- 

 ceded, and may obtain results, in fifteen years, 

 equal, if not superior to those he has only been 

 enabled to reaeh in fifty years. We know not 

 what is the generation of those extraordinary na- 

 tive trees. The ancestors of all the species of ap- 

 ples, pears, cherries, plums, and peaches which 

 exist in a natural state, in this country, must have 

 been generally grailed or budded trees, brouglit 

 from Europe, and ten generations or more may 

 have succeeded before they appeared in the per- 

 fection in which we now enjoy them, or not more 

 than (bur or five." 



THEORY OF VAN MONS, or an historical account 

 of the means which were employed by Van J\/ons 

 to obtain excellent fruit from the seed. 



By A. PoiTEAtr. 



The great number of good and excellent new 

 pears with which Mr. Van ftlons has enriched 

 Europe and North America, within the last forty 

 years, seems to clearly prove, that the method he 

 adopted to obtain them is superior to all others, as 

 no one has obtained so many. Still although he 

 never concealed his process, but published the 

 principle with his catalogue of fruits in 1823, there 

 has not been, within my knowledge a single nur- 

 seryman, or an anmteur in France, who "has at- 

 tempted to practice it, either from a reliance in, or 

 to verify the result.* 



In 1833, the Royal and Central Agricultu- 

 ral Society of the Seine, offered a prize for good, 

 and perfect new fruits; but the programme which 

 was published by the society for that purpose, did 

 not even name Mr. Van Mons's theory, or indi- 

 cate any new method of arriving at the desired 

 end, and left the competitors to the vague routine 

 of sowing at hazard, and waiting until nature per- 

 formed a miracle, in producing one good fruit 

 among a thousand bad. Time will make known 

 the result of the competitors; I shall therefore say 

 nothing upon that subject at this time: but I can- 

 not but regret, that in an age, when philosophers, 



* I honorably except Mr. Bonnet of Boulogne-sur- 

 Mar,an enlightened poinologist, who went several times 

 to Louvain,to examine Mr. Van Mons' nurseries, and 

 who has within three years sown seeds, according to 

 the principles of that great master. 



chemists and physiologists are directing all their 



efforts to discover the process, or what ia vulgarly 

 called the secrets of nature, the Royal and Cen- 

 tral Agricultural Society of the Seine, has not 

 named Mr. Van Mons'a theory — a theory which 

 is now supported by so many repeated experi- 

 ments, as to place it among the number of de- 

 monstrated truths. 



I have said that in 1823 Mr. Van Mons publish- 

 ed in a Ihw words, the principle of the meana 

 which he had employed to obtain good new fi'uitR. 

 h\ 1828 I gave an account of some of these means 

 in (he "■Considerations of the process ivhich is em- 

 ploy cd byiiarfterymen to obtain new ameliorated 

 fruits, .^T." pubiished in the ^'j/nnals of the Hor- 

 ticultural Society (f -Paris,'''' Vol. III. pa(re 288. 

 Now I call the principle of these means Van 

 Mons' Theory, and my object is to indicate its ori- 

 gin, to develope it and to support it by reasons and 

 facts, to attempt to demonstrate its solidity, to 

 cause it to be adopted, and to present it as one of 

 ihc most learned and most useful discoveries which 

 genius and reason have made towards the close of" 

 the eighteenth century. 



Mr. Van Mons, could most as.'?:uredly present 

 and explain his theory infinitely better than it ig 

 possible for me to do; but liiaring that his nume- 

 rous occupations, and above all his modesty might 

 prevent him, I hope, at least, to be able to give a 

 sufficiently clear idea to excuse the audacity of 

 writing upon the useful and important discovery 

 of that learned and venerated professor: and, be- 

 sides, the fearl entertain that Mr. Van Mons will 

 not publish his theory, I believe I shall render an 

 essential service to the history, and chronology of 

 fruit trees, in fixing the epoch of the origin of this 

 history, as well as of that of those numerous good' 

 fi-uits tor which we arc in debt to him. We should 

 at this time be very grateful to our ancestors, if 

 they had left us a greater number of data, on the 

 epochs and the circumstances attending the ap- 

 pearance of the fruits which they have transmit- 

 ted to us, and which will probably disappear in the 

 hands of our offspring; we should have had a fix- 

 ed basis to calculate their longevity, the degrees of 

 their infirmities, and their deterioration, subjects 

 which have now acquired great importance and 

 which it is difficult to deternune, because man does 

 not live sufficiently long to ascertain the phases of 

 the deterioration of fruits. Still as this deteriora- 

 tion, soon or late, is certain, we are very much in- 

 terested, not to trust to chance, the replacing of 

 the old fruits, in proportion as they deteriorate, by 

 new fruits, at least as good if not better than the 

 ancient, which we are fiued successively to lose, 

 in conseqiience of their great age, the feebleness of 

 their constitution and the diseases by which they 

 are attacked. 



In this state of tidngs we should consider the 

 theory of Van Mons, as a very precious discovery, 

 as it not only enriches us with new fruits, the 

 greater part of which are superior to those which 

 we possess, but gives us the certainty of being 

 able to replace those which are inferior, or which 

 have deteriorated, by new varieties of excellent 

 qualities; it is applicable to the renewal of stone 

 and seed fruits; but it is in that of pears we have 

 the most numerous examfdes of its efficacy, Mr. 

 Van Mons being more particularly attached to this 

 kind of fruit, (without however, neglecting the 

 others,) as superior, not merely liom its qualities, 



