244 PLAIN AND PLEASANT TALK 



THE BREEDING OF FRUITS. 



Because, as yet, no certain rules can be laid down for the 

 production of a given result by crossing flower on flower, 

 it does not follow that there are not certain invariable prin- 

 ciples which govern the process. It is but a little while since 

 breeding animals had any pretension to scientific rules. But, 

 by careful practice and observation, the most important 

 improvement has been attained in all the animals belonging 

 to the farm. And if careful research and experiment do 

 not result in absolute certainty, they will yet render the 

 production of fine varieties of fruit, by the crossing of 

 the old ones, a matter of much less chance than it now 

 is. 



The art of cross-fertilization is being much more practised 

 by florists than by pomologists, and for obvious reasons. 

 What the breeder of annuals can do in a few months 

 requires more than as many years from him that essays to 

 raise new fruits. Many florists' flowers, however, require 

 as long and even a longer time than apples or pears ; and it 

 is a marvel that the phlegmatic patience of the tulip-loving 

 Dutch Jobs should not have found imitators in the orchard. 

 If a man can wait ten years to ascertain that all his seedling 

 bulbs are good for nothing, or at the best, that out of ten 

 thousand, but one or two are worth keeping, surely the 

 patience of an enthusiast in fruit ought not to snap by being 

 drawn through such a space. 



Two methods for originating new varieties of fruit have 

 been practised ; the natural method of Van Mons, and the 

 artificial method of Knight. Van Mons, born at Brussels 

 in 1765, was a man of fine genius and thorough education. 

 Although he is chiefly known as a pomologist, his labors 

 in the nursery were only incidental to the regular occupa- 

 tion of a public scientific life. M. Poiteau quaintly says of 

 him that he writes " on the gravest subjects, in the midst 

 of noise, in a company of persons who talk loudly on frivo- 



