184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



a grape which shall combine the good qualities of the lona with 

 the thriftiness of the Concord, and as early as the Hartford Pro- 

 lific, and with as fine looking fruit as the Concord. We shall 

 get it ; but we shall have to raise a good many seedlings before 

 we accomplish it. 



The theory of Van Mons was alluded to as first suggesting 

 this idea of raising seedlings. But I am 'no believer in that 

 theory. He assumes that in order to get good fruit we have 

 got to go back to the original — the wild grape, and the wild 

 apple, and the wild pear — and bring them up to the desired 

 standard. I think that is losing the benefit of the cultivation of 

 centuries. I believe that, in a few generations, you may get 

 trees that will, perhaps, equal those which we now have. But 

 why go through that process? Neither the apple, pear, nor 

 grape changes in its natural condition. It does not produce 

 seedlings that are better or different from itself. It is cultiva- 

 tion only that brings about the change. This may be exempli- 

 fied more readily, perhaps, by referring to the flowers that are 

 cultivated. Take, for instance, the violets. There was one 

 particular species introduced from the Cape of Good Hope, 

 that, until it was cultivated highly, always produced the same. 

 But finally, in the city of Ghent, in the Netherlands, they pro- 

 duced a seedling which was a great improvement. When you 

 have once changed a plant from its natural condition, you may 

 go on to improve by cultivation. It is by cultivation that you 

 produce a tendency to something better. I had a variety of 

 bean which I called the olive colored cranberry bean. I found, 

 one year, that a different bean had grown from it. I took sixty 

 or seventy beans from it, and planted them by themselves the 

 next year, and from them I got as many different varieties as 

 there were beans that I planted. There were bush and poll 

 beans of all varieties. Unfortunately, I was unable to pursue 

 the experiment any further. Therefore, I lay this down as a 

 fundamental principle : If you want to get good fruit, take from 

 a variety already under cultivation, and then take the best 

 specimens of the fruit. The success of this plan, as compared 

 with the other, will show, I think, that the principle which I lay 

 down is correct. 



Van Mons, after his experiment of raising seedlings two or 

 three successive generations, planted and raised sixty thousand 



