300 Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 



Again, there is a certain limit to perfection in fruits. When this point is 

 reached, as in the finest varieties, the next generation will more probably 

 produce bad fruit, than if reared from seeds of an indifierent sort, in the 

 course of amelioration. While, in other words, the seeds of the oldest va- 

 rieties of good fruit mostly yield inferior sorts, seeds taken from recent 

 varieties of bad fruit, and reproduced uninterrwpledly for several generations, 

 will certainly produce good fruit. 



With these premises. Dr. Van Mons begins by gathering his seeds from 

 a young seedling tree, without paying much regard to its quality, except 

 that it must be in a state of variation; that is to say, a garden variety, and 

 not a wild sort. These he sows in a seedbed or nursery, where he leaves 

 the seedlings until they attain sufficient size to enable him to judge of their 

 character. He then selects those which appear the most promising, plants 

 them a few feet distant in the nursery, and awaits their fruit. Not dis- 

 couraged at finding most of them of mediocre quality, though differing from 

 the parent, he gathers the first seeds of the most promising and sows them 

 again. The next generation comes more rapidly into bearing than the 

 first, and shows a greater number of promising traits. Gathering imme- 

 diately, and sowing the seeds of this generation, he produces a third, then 

 a fourth, and even a fifth generation, uninterruptedly, from the original sort. 

 Each generation he finds to come more quickly into bearing than the previ- 

 ous one, (the fifth sowing of pears fruiting at three years,) and to produce 

 a greater number of valuable varieties ; until in the fifth generation the 

 seedlings are nearly all of great excellence. 



Dr. Van Mons found the pear to require the longest time to attain perfec- 

 tion, and he carried his process with this fruit through five generations. 

 Apples he found needed but four races, and peaches, cherries, plums, and 

 other stone fruits, were brought to perfection in three successive reproduc- 

 tions from the seed. 



It will be remembered that it is a leading feature in this theory that, in 

 order to improve the fruit, we must subdue or enfeeble the original coarse 

 luxuriance of the tree. Keeping this in mind, Dr. Van Mons always gath- 

 ers his fruit before fully ripe, and allows them to rot before planting the 

 seeds, in order to refine or render less wild and harsh the next generation. 

 In transplanting the young seedlings into quarters to bear, he cuts off the 

 tap root, and he annually shortens the leading and side branches, besides 

 planting them only a few feet apart. All this lessens the vigor of the trees, 

 and produces an impression upon the nature of the seeds which will be pro- 

 duced by their first fruit ; and, in order to continue in full force the progres- 

 sive variation, he allows his seedlings to bear on their own roots. 



Such is Dr. Van Mons's theory and method for obtaining new varieties of 

 fruit. It has never obtained much favor in England, and from the length of 

 time necessary to bring about its results, it is scarcely likely to come into 

 very general use here. At the same time it is not to be denied that in his 

 hands it has proved a very successful mode 'of obtaining new varieties. 



It is also undoubtedly true that it is a mode closely founded on natural 



