FEBRUARY. 61 



enfeebled or diseased. Without admitting whether the lat- 

 ter assumption is correct or not, it is sufficient for our purpose 

 to know that it is to " cultivation " or domestication that we 

 are to look for amelioration or improvement. This amelio- 

 ration begins gradually ; a variety produced by good culture 

 in one generation, is still further improved by high, culture in 

 the next ; and thus, as in Van Mons's system, the fifth gen- 

 eration, among which were his best fruits, was a great remove 

 from the original. If, therefore, according to this learned 

 pomologist, trees are always produced in a state of nature 

 without sensible variation through hundreds of generations, 

 is it not to high culture or domestication alone that we are 

 indebted for all his valuable accessions? 



And what is cultivation, as we suppose Yan Mons under- 

 stood it ? He states this himself: As soon as his seedlings 

 of the wild trees were up, he cultivated them ^'- with care, and 

 endeavored to hasten their groivth as much as possible, by 

 all means iti his poiver^ The seeds of the first generation 

 were sown. These he tended with ^^ equal care.'''' The 

 seeds of the second generation, " being carefully cultivated,^'' 

 fructified earlier than the first ; the seedlings of the third 

 generation which had a good appearance were sown, and 

 " the trees managed as carefully as the preceding ;^^ and the 

 same process was continued to the fifth generation. Is it not 

 apparent to all that the magnificent fruits which he gave to 

 the world were the results of the very highest culture, in the 

 strongest sense in which we can use the word ? 



Born or raised under such circumstances, can we, ought 

 we to expect to produce these fine fruits in the excellence in 

 which they came from him, with any less care than he be- 

 stowed upon them himself? The response to this will be in 

 the negative. We cannot expect anything of the kind ; and 

 to reproduce the large and luscious varieties, the results of 

 his years of unremitted toil and labor, we must set our- 

 selves to work in earnest, and not throw up our hands and 

 demand that we must have another class of equally fine 

 fruits which everybody can grow — of course without any 

 care. 



