1S36.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



227 



tain no other than excellent apples, only four suc- 

 cessive and uninterrupted generations, from pa- 

 rent to son, and about twenty consecutive years, 

 were required. As to the pear, the dillicuity was 

 greater, but not insurmountable, as we shall see. 

 At first, Mr. Van Mons was unable to procure the 

 seeds ot" varieties very recently procreated; tiie 

 seeds which he was obliged to use to commence 

 his experiments with, were obtained from ancient 

 varieties, whose age, although inicertain, was 

 luuch advanced, which from experience tended to 

 retard the Urst fructification of his j-oung trees. 

 Nevertheless, Mr. Van ]Mons has been able to 

 ascertam that twelve or filleen years was the mean 

 term of" time which evolved from the moment of 

 planting the first seed of an ancient variety of the 

 domesticated pear, to the first fructification of the 

 trees which sprang from them. 



The trees from tlie second sowing of the seed of 

 tlie first generation, have yielded their first fruit at 

 the age of firom ten to twelve years, as the mean 

 term; those of the third generation, at the age of 

 from eight to ten years; those of the fourth gen- 

 eration, at the age of from six to eight years; and 

 finally, those of the fifth generation, at the age of 

 six years. Mr. Van Mons being actually at the 

 eighth generation, has informed me that he has 

 obtained several pear trees which fructified at the 

 age of lour years. 



From this decreasing progresson, it may be 

 seen that the fear of a lengthened experiment 

 ought to decrease in proportion as it advances, and 

 that adding the requisite years in the first five gen- 

 erations of the pear, a point is reached where 

 none other than good and excellent pears are ob- 

 tained, at the end of forty two years. But if in 

 each generation, as has been shown, there are al- 

 ways several trees which do not await the mean 

 term named for their fructification, the time may be 

 estimated that thirty-six years for obtaining fiom 

 the pear, in five uninterrupted generations from pa- 

 rent to son, new trees and fruits, all of which arc 

 of excellent quality. The time can still he more 

 abridged; for in one of his last letters, Mr. Van 

 Mons intbrms me that from two of his first sow- 

 ings of pears, there were trees produced which 

 fructified at the age of six years. 



I have collected much of what I have stated, 

 and what I have yet to relate, in the nurseries of 

 Mr. Van Mons, at Louvain; but it is from the cor- 

 respondence of that venerated professor, that I 

 have obtained the groundwork of my discourse; 

 and as* that correspondence had for its object my 

 sole instruction, and not that of guiding me in a 

 compilation which I had not contemplated, it fol- 

 lows that what I have still to communicate has 

 not that natural connexion which I desired it 

 should have assumed, and will consequently ap- 

 pear, to a certain extent, as detached articles. 



When Mr. Van Mons commenced raising trees 

 from the seed, he had already seen in other nurse- 

 ries, that the seed of the varieties of the pear ge- 

 jaus reproduced neither the characteristics of the 

 tree, nor those of the fruit from which they sprang; 

 therelbre, he was not restrained, as may be said, 

 to raise by species. Dut he had gone fixrthcr ar'd 

 ascertained that the ten seeds of a pear produced 

 ten difierent trees, and ten diflereut li'uits. Still 

 his manner of sowing is very near that of all nur- 

 serymen. He left his plants in the seed bed two 

 years; he then took them up, and part of them h;? 



threw away as worthless, and transplanted the 

 most vigorous at such a distance one fi-om the 

 other, that the}' could thoroughly develope them- 

 selves and fructify. lie considered it best to plant 

 them sufliciently near, in order to force them to 

 run up tall, and to form pyramidal tops, without 

 pruning; this hastens, he states, their fructifica- 

 tion. 1 have seen squares of pear trees in his nur- 

 sery at Louvain, at the epoch of their first fructifi- 

 cation, and they appeared to be about ten feet apart. 

 While waiting for the young trees thus planted to 

 fructify, there is afforded an opportunity of study- 

 ing their form and physiognomy, and to establish 

 I lie prognostics of what they may become, from 

 their different exterior characteristics. 



iMr. Van Mons has ascertained that it is scarce- 

 ly before the age of four years that young pear 

 trees develope their characteristics; and that be- 

 fore this age, it is rarely possible to presume what 

 each individual may become. It is not until the 

 second or third year after the seedlings have been 

 transplanted, that Mr. Van Mons begins toexam- 

 iiie them for the purpose of ascertaining the prog- 

 nostics of each individual. In the commencement 

 of his experiments, it was sufficiently easy for him 

 to recognise as good auguries in those young trees, 

 which showed from their form, wood and leaves, 

 a resemblance to our good ancient varieties. But 

 as he obtained a great number of excellent new 

 li'uits, which presented new characteristics, some- 

 times analagous and sometimes opposed to those 

 of our good old varieties, it was much more diffi- 

 cult to establish the data for ascertaining what the 

 young trees raised from the seed may become; for 

 he obtained excellent fruit from trees of a very 

 bad appearance. Still from long continued obser- 

 vations, he has established the following prognos- 

 tics: 



1. Prognostic of favorable augury. A good 

 form, a smooth and slightly shining bark, a regu- 

 lar distribution of the branches, in proportion to The 

 height of the tree; annual shoots bent, striated, a 

 little twisted, and breaking clean without splinters, 

 thorns long, garnished with eyes or buds, their 

 whole, or nearly whole length; eyes or buds plump, 

 not divergent, red, or grizzled; leaves smooth, of 

 a mean size, crimped on the sides of the middle 

 nerve, borne on petioles rather long than short, the 

 youngest, in spring, remaining a long time direct- 

 ly against the bud, the others, or the inferior, ex- 

 panded, hollowed into a gutter from the bottom to- 

 wards the top^ but not their whole length. 



2. Prognostics of bad augury. Branches and 

 twigs conlijsed, protruding like tlaose of the hom- 

 beain, or broom; thorns short, without eyes; leaves 

 averted from the bud, fiom their first appearing, 

 small, round, terminating in a short point, gutter- 

 ed their whole length. These characteristics in- 

 dicate small fruit, flesh sweet and dry, or baking 

 fruit and late. 



3. Prognostics of early fruit. Wood large, 

 short; buds large and near. 



4. Prognostics of late fruit. Wood slim, 

 branches well distributed, pendent, the dioots a 

 little knotted, generally denote late delicious fruit; 

 with leaves round, point short, stiff, of a deep 

 green, bnrne on petioles of mean length, are ana- 

 lagous signs, but less sure. 



I wish much, that Mr. Van Mons had indicated, 

 by what sign v/e could determine, when a young 

 |)ear tree promised large fruit, but he has been si- 



