230 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



FNo. 4 



discover any disease, and which he allowed the 

 gardener of the Emperor to introduce into the 

 gardens of the Crown. I am well persuaded, that 

 our varieties of fruit trees, considering their origin, 

 cannot have the tenacity, the indefinite lite of the 

 natural species; but I also believe that there are 

 imperfections, individual maladies, which do not 

 equally attack the whole variety; that the variety, 

 for example, we call Beurre Gris, which is in a 

 state of decrepitude, is extinct in some places, 

 while it still exists in others. Mr. Van Mons him- 

 self affirms it, in saying, that in Belgium, there 

 are varieties, which no longer succeed, except as 

 espaliers trained against a waH; and finally, I be- 

 lieve that, if scions had always been taken from 

 the most healthy individuals to perpetuate the va 

 rieties, we should not have seen so many trees af- 

 fected with diseases, which abridge their existence 

 and which also contribute, lor the same reason, to 

 shorten that of the whole variety. If now then, 

 it is adopted as a principle, never to take scions 

 but from young and healthy trees, and to insert 

 them only on vigorous free stocks, the varieties will 

 he longer preserved in a healthy state, than is the 

 case at the present time. 



Still, whether the deterioration of our fruit frees, 

 be naturally slow as I think, or rapid, as Mr. Van 

 Mons and Mr. Knight have asserted, it is not less 

 certain, and it is well to think of some method for 

 replacing them. Our manner of sowing the seeds 

 and trusting to chance, lor obtaining a good new 

 fruit, is not certainly the best, as experience has 

 sufficiently proved. Besides, chance does not 

 merit the confidence of a reasonable man, especi- 

 ally when the probabilities are adverse. It is ne- 

 cessary then to have recourse to science, which is 

 founded on reasons deduced from particular facts, 

 and from whence flows that vvhich is called a prin- 

 ciple; and when this principle agrees with the 

 jcourse of nature, and is not contrary to any known 

 fact, it seems to me, that it should be adopted as 

 a truth, and be employed with confidence. 



Such is, in my estimation, the theory of Mr. 

 Fan Mons, and it is to be considered as the best 

 and most prompt means of regenerating our fruit 

 trees, that is to say, of replacing the old deteriora- 

 led varieties by new varieties, which are perfectly 

 healthy and bear excellent fruit. I have present- 

 ed, as clearly as was in my power, the process em- 

 ployed to put it in practice, to induce the friends of 

 our country to naturalize it; and in order to inspire 

 more confidence, I have dared to say a word on 

 the transcendent merit of its author, lor which I 

 ask a thousand pardons of his modesty, 



I might yet add to this corollary many remarks, 

 made by Mr. Van Mons on fruit trees and their 

 culture, for his correspondence is very copious in 

 facts; but I believe I have said sufficient to support 

 the theory of this learned professor. I therefore, 

 hasten to complete my memoir, by fixing the 

 epoch of the removal of his nursery from Brussels 

 to Louvain, and giving an idea of the incredible 

 obstacles vvhich he was obliged to encounter, in his 

 pomological career, instead ol the encouragements 

 which were due to him, and shall finish, by a de- 

 scription of some of the excellent fruits obtained 

 by Mr. Van Mons, and few or none of which are 

 yet known in France. 



After Mr. Van Mons had been a distinguished 

 professor of physic and chemistry for seven years 

 in the central school of the department of Dylc, 



and aller the fortunes of war had separated Bel- 

 gium from France, King William rendered justice 

 to his merit, by naming him prof(5ssor of the same 

 subjects in the University of Louvain, in 1817, six 

 months even before that University was re-estab- 

 lished. Louvain being only about six leagues dis- 

 tant from Brussels, Mr. Van Mons could at the 

 same time perform his duty as professor, superin- 

 tend his nursery, and pursue his experiments. He 

 was then at the apogee of his pomological career; 

 he had more than 80,000 trees in his Pepiniere de 

 la Fiddite [Nursery of Fidelity] the greater part 

 of which were pears raised from the seed; several 

 compartments were in their fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 generationswithoutinterruption,li-om parent to son, 

 and produced delicious fruits. He had for several 

 years sent scions to Germany, England and the 

 United States of America; nevertheless, except 

 his friend Bosc, Mr. Vilmorin, Mr. Leon Leileric, 

 and Mr. Bonnet, there was scarcely an individual 

 in France, who knew that Mr. Van Mons existed; 

 such is the empire which routine and apathy has 

 among us. The English and American cata- 

 louges are filled with Mr. Van Mons, fruit; and it 

 was not until 1834 that we find a ^ew of them de- 

 scribed, in the new edition of Mr Noisette's Jar- 

 din Fruitier. 



To decide upon the character of these new 

 fruits, Mr. Van Mons assembled three or four 

 friends who were superior judges; they tasted 

 them, wrote down the qualities of each, and Mr, 

 Van mons preserved only the trees that produced 

 fruit which was decided to be good and very good; 

 the same proof was repeated two, three, and four 

 times in succession, and it was not until after these 

 repeated trials, that he decided to take grafts from 

 the trees which bore them. On this subject, I 

 should here make a few remarks, to dissipate the 

 doubt which some persons still entertain, on the 

 care which Mr. Van Mons took to propacrate only 

 excellent fruits. In the first place, it should be 

 observed that every year is not favorable to the 

 perfljct development of the good qualities of fruit, 

 and that if a fruit generally delicious, is tasted for 

 the first time, in an unfavorable year, an inferior 

 quality may be discovered. It was thus that in 

 1833 I did not find in several samples of Poiteaii's 

 pear those excellent qualities, which Mr. Van 

 Mons had recognised during four successive years, 

 and which had determined this learned man. from 

 motives of friendship, to honor me by affixing to 

 it my name. In the second place, it was always 

 impossible for Mr. Van Mons to collect the scions 

 liimself, as he was too much occupied, Avhich ex- 

 plains why it sometimes has happened, that an 

 indifl'erent variety has been received, instead of a 

 kind worthy of propagation. It was evidently 

 from an error of this kind, that Mr. Vilmorin re- 

 ceived, under the name of Beurre Fourcroy, a 

 Pear tree of a very late kind, the fhiit of which 

 had no merit; for Mr. Van Mons had tasted the 

 Beurre Fourcroy several years in succession, and 

 had found it worthy of being dedicated to that 

 most learned chemist, who had accepted the ded- 

 ication, a little time before bis death. 



Mr. Van Mons fully enjoyed the result of his 

 long conliuued experiments; he was happy in dif- 

 fusing with real disinterestedness, and the greatest 

 coni|iiaconce, his new fruits, the greater part of 

 which were superior to those with which we are 

 acquainted, when in 1819. exahrvpto, the land on 



