ORIGIN AND IMPROVEMENT OF FRUIT 313 



to sow perpetually; in short to do nothing but sow is the 

 practice to be pursued and which cannot be departed from." 



He concluded that pears require the longest time to attain 

 perfection, and he cari'ied the process with this fruit through 

 five generations. Apples, he found, needed but four races, 

 and peaches, cherries, plums, and other stone-fruits were 

 brought to perfection in three successive reproductions from 

 the seed. 



''Van Mons' work, which was largely confined to pears, 

 was begun in 1785. Thirty years later, in 1823, when he had 

 commenced distributing scions freely throughout the world, 

 he had 80,000 seedling trees in his nursery. At this time his 

 first catalog was issued and in it 1050 pears were mentioned 

 by name or number. Of this list 405 were his own creation 

 and 200 of them had been considered worthy of naming, 

 among them being some of the varieties still raised the world 

 over, including Diel, Bosc, Colmar, Manning's Elizabeth, 

 and many others of equal merit. 



"Probably no worker with plants has ever given to the 

 world so clear a demonstration of the value of selection as 

 Van Mons; and this demonstration is worth all the efforts 

 put forth, even though this was made in the attempt to 

 prove another and, as is now believed, erroneous doctrine." ^ 



277. Work of Knight.— Thomas Andrew Knight (1759- 

 1838) was the first practical and scientific breeder of fruits. 

 Bailey describes him as a man "who in the variety, accuracy, 

 significance and candor of his experiments stands to the 

 present day without a rival amongst horticulturists." He 

 conducted experiments which are still standard in plant 

 physiology and horticulture. 



Knight avoided the error of Van Mons, that of having a 

 theory to prove, but devoted himself to a study of nature 



• Munson, M. W. Plant breeding in its relation to American 

 pomology. Maine Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 132. 1906. 



