514 



NEAT ENGLAND FARISIER. 



Nov. 



"My next suggestion relates to the production 

 from seed of new varieties of fruits adapted to 

 particular localities or to general cultivation. 



The immense loss to American cultivators, from 

 the importation of foreign varieties, in many in- 

 stances not well adapted to the countries from 

 which tliey come, and often still less adapted to 

 our soil and climate, suggests the importance of 

 raising from seed, native sorts which, in most in- 

 stances, possess peculiar advantages. It is now 

 generally conceded that the trees and plants of a 

 given country, like its aboriginal inhabitants, 

 will flourish better at home than in most foreign 

 localities. 



We rejoice that public attention has been turned 

 to this subject by some of our horticultural jour- 

 nalists, and that many cultivators and amateurs 

 are engaged in this interesting and promising de- 

 partment. The success which has crowned their 

 exertions affords great encouragement to perse- 

 verance. Witness, for instance, thirty or more 

 varieties of the cherry, by Dr. Kirtland of Ohio, 

 which appear adapted to our eastern climate, and 

 some of them of superior excellence. Witness 

 the numerous varieties of the raspberry, by Dr. 

 Brinckle, ex-President of this Society, of which, 

 some have endured, without covering, the severi- 

 ties of the last winter in the New England States, 

 and which also promise to be valuable contribu- 

 tions to American pomology. In addition to 

 these how many new varieties of the apple, the 

 pear, the plum and the grape, have recently been 

 added to the list of American fruits. How many 

 new and excellent varieties of strawberry have 

 appeared since the introduction of Mr. Hovey's 

 seedlings. 



These are sure indications of the success which 

 will reward future efforts to obtain valuable and 

 native varieties of fruit ; and they point to the 

 fulfilment of tlie prediction of the celebrated Van 

 Mona, 'tliat the time will come when our best 

 fruits will be derived from seedlings.' He gives 

 the following sage counsel to his correspondents 

 to whom he had sent trees — 'Sow your seed and 

 persevere without interruption and you will ob- 

 tain even better fruit than mine.' 



Among pioneers in this department I am hapJ3y 

 to notice a gentleman (now residing among us) 

 the pupil and friend of Van Mons, one who hag 

 adopted our country as his future home, and who 

 has already transplanted to our soil many thou- 

 sand choice seedlings of" the pear, which have 

 come into his possession frooi the collections of 

 that gentleman and tlic celebrated Esperen, 



As to the best method of producing fine vari- 

 eties from seed, the opinions of distinguished po- 

 mologists are not uniform. 



Duhamcl, among the French, from causes 

 which seem to us irreconcilable with nature and 

 experience, entertained serious doubts of the 

 practical )ility of any method for obtaining new 

 and valuable varieties from seed, especially of the 

 pear, because ho had tried various experiments 

 without success, for fifty years. 



Dr. Van IMons of Belgium, instead of saving 

 the seed of the finest varieties, selected those of 

 inferior sorts, upon the principle that a kind 

 having arrived at the highest state of perfection 

 must deteriorate while an inferior one would im- 

 prove by successive reproductions. He also con- 

 tended that hybridization tended to degeneracy 



and imperfection. Thus he assumes the doctrine 

 that a perfect variety necessarily deteriorates, and 

 also overlooks the fiict observed by other distin- 

 guished men, that the improvement or deteriora- 

 tion of which he speaks may result from natural 

 impregnation by the pollen of other varieties con- 

 veyed by the air or insects, and therefore that 

 the seed of a good variety may produce either a 

 better or a worse, and that of a bad either a 

 worse or a better. 



Mr. Knight's system of obtaining new and im- 

 proved varieties depended entirely on hybridiza- 

 tion or artificial impregnation, so lightly esteemed 

 by Dr. Van Mons. This is somewhat diflicuU .to 

 practice on account of natural fertilization by in- 

 sects and the wind ; but it has the merit of de- 

 pending on a truly philosophical principle, atd 

 with very particular attention may yet prove as 

 available for the improvement of our fruits as it 

 has for the production of fine varieties in the vege- 

 table and floral kingdom, or as the corresponding 

 principle has in the crossing of the breeds of do- 

 mestic animals. 



The results of Mr. Knight's experience disprove 

 the tendency to degeneracy, inasmuch as many of 

 his fruits, obtained by hybridization, are among 

 the most durable and hardy varieties, as the Eye- 

 wood and Dunmore pears, the Black Eagle and 

 other cherries. 



Many cultivators, as Esperen, Bivort, Berc- 

 mans, and others, both in this and foreign coun- 

 tries, have sown seeds in variety, and have ob- 

 tained some valuable sorts. But I am confirmed 

 in the opinion that the best means of producing 

 new and excellent varieties, suited either to gen- 

 eral cultivation or to particular localities, is to 

 l^lant the most mature and perfect seed of the 

 most hardy, vigorous, and valuable sorts, on the 

 pathological principle that like produces like, 

 and upon the conviction that immature seed, al- 

 though the embryo may be sufficiently formed to 

 vegetate, yet not having ail its elements in per- 

 fection, it will not produce a vigorous and healthy 

 offspring. Dr. Lindley, commenting upon this 

 practice, justly remarks — 'AH experience shows 

 that in every kind of created thing, be it man, or 

 beast, or bird, the mysterious principle called life 

 remains during the whole period of existence 

 what it was at first. If vitality is feeble in tho 

 beginning, so it remains. Weak parents produce 

 weak children, and their children's children are 

 weaker still, as imperial dynasties have sadly 

 shown.' With him we believe this theory as ap- 

 plicable to the vegetable as to the animal king- 

 dom. May not a disregard of this doctrine ac- 

 count for the great number of feeble, sickly, early 

 defoliated trees often found in our grounds by the 

 side of those that are vigorous, healthful, and 

 persistent in foliage? Is not the theory wc advo- 

 cate as important in the production of fruit-trees 

 as in the raising of cereal grains? The skilful 

 agriculturist saves tho best seed of his various 

 crops and selects the best animals from his flocka 

 and herds for breeders. Why should not this 

 law of reproduction regulate tbe practice of the 

 pomologist as well as of the farmer ? Has the 

 All-wise and Infinite enacted several laws where 

 one would subserve the purpose? 



To the doctrine of Van Mons, and other distin- 

 guished writers, respecting deterioration by ago, 

 and after a variety has reached its perfection, 



