20 Duration and Vigor of Seedling Fruits. 



" The Fruits and Fruit Trees of America,^^ which I have 

 brought into juxtaposition, furnish an apt illustration of this. 



"Dr. Van Mons, whose ex- "New varieties of apples 



perience in raising seedling are constantly springing up 



fruit trees was more extensive in this country from the seed, 



than that of any other man, in favorable soils ; and these, 



declares it as his opinion, that when of superior quality, may, 



the more frequently a tree as a general rule, be consid- 



is reproduced continuously ered much more valuable for 



from seed the more feeble and orchard culture than foreign 



short-lived is the seedling pro- sorts, on account of their 



duced." — p. 465. greater productiveness and 



longevity." — p. 69. 



" On account of their greater productiveness and lon- 

 gevity ; " and that is the reason of our author for recom- 

 mending the new seedlings as " much more valuable in gen- 

 eral for orchard culture." I believe the recommendation of 

 native over foreign sorts to be judicious, for many reasons, 

 among which the one adduced will sometimes be found to 

 obtain, in a remarkable degree ; yet, they must have under- 

 gone at least one remove towards feebleness and short-lived- 

 ness, according to the notion of Dr. Van Mons, which he has 

 not hesitated to quote with approbation, for the purpose of 

 supporting an hypothesis of his own, concerning " the yel- 

 lows " in the peach tree. 



But I am not willing, without examination, to fall in with 

 the mere dictum of any one, in a matter of so much impor- 

 tance, however great his authority may be. If the sound- 

 ness of Van Mons's theory, supposing him to be truly quoted, 

 as I take for granted to be the case, is to be verified or other- 

 wise by experiments to be made in the " reproduction of 

 fruit trees continuously from seed," and to be conducted ac- 

 cording to the letter of his hypothesis, it would require a 

 long period of time before any results could be arrived at. 

 The conclusions to be then drawn from them would more- 

 over be very uncertain ; for, though what might be deter- 

 mined, in the case of a majority of the individuals produced 

 by the experiment, would doubtless have a tendency towards 

 establishing some " general rule ; " yet it might appear, that 



