LUTHER BURBANK 



It is only fair to recall, however, that the new 

 beginnings in the development of the pear took 

 place in western Europe independently of an ori- 

 ental alliance. 



NEW BEGINNINGS IN EUROPE 



The pears of to-day, as known in the eastern 

 United States, and for that matter most of the 

 finest Californian varieties, are the bearers of an 

 impulse to development that was given by 

 a French horticulturist, Jean Baptiste Van Mons, 

 and Andrew Knight of England about a century 

 ago. Van Mons acted on a theory, now aban- 

 doned, that young plants produce the best prog- 

 eny. But this led him "to sow, to re-sow, to sow 

 again, to sow perpetually." And he selected his 

 seeds with such care as to develop many improved 

 varieties. In particular, he taught some pears to 

 bear fruit in three years from the seed. 



Van Mons produced by selection about four 

 hundred new varieties of pears, among others a 

 dwarf variety that was a prolific bearer. 



Meantime, however, the pear was making its 

 way in America, and one of the most famous va- 

 rieties, the Seckel, originated in the early part of 

 the nineteenth century on the farm of a man 

 whose name it bears near Philadelphia. This was 

 a "spontaneous" variant or mutant, the precise 

 origin of which is unknown. 



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