lS3r,.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



229 



fully ripe, from which it is desirable to obtain seed 

 for plantiiifr, and to leave it to become |)erlectly 

 iiu'Iiow, and reach a stale of decay, helbre extract- 

 ino- the seeds or stones. lie admits, with Mr. 

 Kniuht, that the apple deteriorates less rapidly, 

 and lives lontfcr, than the pear. This cannot be 

 doubted, when we compare the facility of rearing 

 apple trees in almost any kind of soil, with the 

 difHculty of finding one, which is suitable for the 

 pear. 



The learned professor much prefers the white 

 thorn, Mespiliis uxijacantha, to the quince, as a 

 stock forgraftingour ancient varieties of pears up- 

 on. Pears grafted on a thorn, he says, grow 

 liigher, have a more perfect pyranfidal form, and 

 produce their fruit nearer the trunk. I agree en- 

 tirely in opinion with IMr. Van Rlons; first, because 

 the pear takes perlectly on the thorn, which is an 

 indigenous tree, rustic, not ditficult to cultivate, and 

 of easy multiplication from the seeds; and second- 

 ly, because complaints begin to be made of the 

 quince, not only on accoiuit of its three varieties 

 giving dlferent results, but in consequence of its 

 being deteriorated by its extended multiplication 

 by suckers and cuttings; and because it docs not 

 succeed well, in all kinds ot land. As to the 

 choice of the best variety, an error, committed in 

 this respect, in the nursery of l^uxembourg, has 

 excited great complaints on the part of those who 

 have obtained pear trees from that establishment, 

 which has proved for the thousandth time, that the 

 (]uince tree ol' malformed fruit, is not so good fi)r 

 slocks, as that vvhich yields pyramidal fruit. As* 

 to the superiority of the white thorn over the 

 quince, it is a question which will soon be settled 

 with us; lor when the Horticultural Society of Pa- 

 ris received the collection of pear scions, which 

 was sent by Mr. Van Mons in the spring of 1834, 

 there were not asulTicicnt number of quincestocks, 

 at command, for all of them, and Count De Mu- 

 rinais caused a portion of them to be placed on the 

 thorn : they have taken perfectly well, grown ad- 

 mirably, and give the most favorable indications of 

 a fortunate result. 



From the data which Mr. Van Mons has given, 

 we are induced to think, that the pears which do 

 not succeed with us, unless trained as espaliers, 

 against a wall, have not always required that fa- 

 vorable position, — that they are now irreclaimable, 

 on account of" the weakness of old age, the dete- 

 rioration which they have sustained, and the de- 

 crepitude which threatens them, and that finally, 

 a time will arrive, when in spite of our cares, they 

 will no longer be good even as espaliers, and will 

 be abandoned and become extinct. To illustrate 

 the principle of that able pomologist on this sub- 

 ject, 1 will add, that when a variety is enfeebled 

 l)y age, or its temperament exhausted, it is best to 

 graft it on a (luince, in order that it may receive 

 only a moderate nourishment, and should never be 

 put on a fi"ee stock, whose too copious supply of 

 aliment would hasten its destruction. 



Mr. Van Mons has remarked, that the new va- 

 rieties of pears which he obtained by repeatedly 

 planting the seed from generation to generation, 

 without interruption from parent to son, neither 

 possessed the rusticity or the longevity of old vari- 

 eties, and that those whose fruit was the best, were 

 also those which indicated the shortest term of 

 longevity. All this is in conformity to the course 

 of nature, and it is proper that we submit to it, 



Mr. Van Mons has given the explanation of this 

 (act. When there is no interruption between the 

 generations of our varieties of fiuit trees, nature 

 cannot reclaim her rights; she has not time to mod- 

 ify the seed according to her manner, to make 

 them resume a part of their old wild character, 

 but if a space of fifty years is left between two gen- 

 erations, the individuals of the second, bear the 

 marks of rusticity, and a tendency towards the 

 wild state, which nature had developed jn the 

 seeds of their parent during those fifty" years. 

 This in fact, happens, when the seeds of an old 

 variety of a fi'uit tree are sown. 



Here 1 am bound to attempt to present the opin- 

 ion of Mr. Van Mons without alteration, and to 

 add thereto my reflections, and some adverse 

 views whether well or ill established; but finally 

 it is time that I leave him to speak for himself and 

 express in his own cogent style, his manner of ob- 

 serving the progress of deterioration and decrepi- 

 tude in our varieties of fruit trees. 



" I have remarked, " he says, " that the most 

 excellent beyond all others, least resist the ravages 

 of old age, and become sooner old than the varie- 

 ties whose birth preceded them; they cannot attain 

 an age of half a century, without manifesting 

 symptoms of decrepitude. The first of these 

 symptons, is that of bearing less constantly and 

 the fruit ripening later. 'I'he decay of the wood, 

 the loss of the beautiful form of the tree, and the 

 alteration of thefi-uit follows at much later periods. 

 The varieties which have existed but half a cen- 

 tury do not sufiijr from the canker at the ends of 

 the branches, nor from diseases of die bark; the 

 fi-uit does not crack, is not filled with a hard sub- 

 stance, covered with knots nor insipid or dry; the 

 alternates, are but a yenr : these varieties can still 

 be grafted on other trees, without their infirmities 

 being augmented. It requires half a century more 

 to end their suffijrings, and the general destruction 

 of the varieties is the only remedy which can be 

 api)lied to its diseases. It is painful to think, that 

 soon the Saint Germain, the Beurre Gris, the 

 Crassanne, the Colmar and the Doyenne [St Mi- 

 chaels] must submit to this destruction. None of 

 these varieties any longer succeed with us [in Bel- 

 gium] except when engrafted on the thorn and an 

 espaliers; but this success is at the expense of their 

 commendable qualities. During my youth these 

 varieties in my father's garden, presented superb 

 trees, in good health, and rarely was there any 

 imperfection in their fruit. O quantum distans ah 

 illis ! What a loss in a time so short — in the 

 space of sixty years ! I repeat, the advantage of 

 youthllil variation, is being without any imperfec- 

 tions." 



I ask permission of Mr. Van Mons fo doubt, a 

 little, such an alarming rapidity in the enli^eble- 

 mentof our varieties of" Pears. I well know that 

 almost all those, with which I have been acquaint- 

 ed for fifty years, are affected with diflcrent mala- 

 dies; that in passing through the nurseries, trees 

 are seen, which have been grafted from our fine 

 pears, in the bark of the stocks of which, are nu- 

 merous defects; the branches are cankered, the ex- 

 tremities of the young twigs are black and they 

 lose their leaves before the natural epoch, — all dis- 

 eases, which Count Lelieur places among the 

 number of those that are incurable; but the au- 

 thor, although very particular, has nevertheless, 

 found here and there trees upon which he did not 



