Fruits and Fruit Trees of America. 301 



laws, and that the great bulk of our fine varieties have originated, nom- 

 inally by chance, but really, by successive reproductions from the seed in 

 our gardens. 



It is not a little remarkable that the constant springing up of fine new 

 sorts of fruit in the United States, which is every day growing more fre- 

 quent, is given with much apparent force as a proof of the accuracy of the 

 Van Mons theory. The first colonists here, who brought with them many 

 seeds gathered from the best old varieties of fruits, were surprised to find 

 their seedlings producing only very inferior fruits. These seedlings had 

 returned by their inherent tendency almost to a wild state. By rearing 

 from them, however, seedlings of many repeated generations, we have ar- 

 rived at a great number of the finest apples, pears, peaches and plums. 

 According to Dr. Van Mons, had this process been continued uninterrupted- 

 ly, from one generation to the next, a much shorter time would have been 

 necessary for the production of first rate varieties. 



It is not to be denied that, in the iace of Dr. Van Mons's theory, in this 

 country, new varieties of rare excellence are sometimes obtained at once by 

 planting the seeds of old grafted varieties; thus the Lawrence's Favorite, 

 and the Columbia plums, were raised from seeds of the Green Gage, one of 

 the oldest European varieties." — pp. 6, 7, 8. 



In the chapter on budding, Mr. Downing describes what he 

 terms American Shield budding, which he gives a preference 

 over the common English mode. It consists in leaving in 

 the small portion of wood under the bud, which in the usual 

 way, is taken out: — 



" The American variety of shield budding is found greatly preferable to 

 the European mode, at least for this climate. Many sorts of fruit trees, 

 especially plums and cherries, nearly mature their growth, and require to be 

 budded in the hottest part of our summer. In the old method, the bud hav- 

 ing only a shield of bark with but a particle of wood in the heart of the 

 bud, is much inore liable to be destroyed by heat, or dryness, than when 

 the slice of wood is left behind in the American way. Taking out this 

 wood is always an operation requiring some dexterity and practice, as few 

 buds grow when their eye, or heart wood is damaged. The American 

 method, therefore, requires less skill, can be done earlier in the season with 

 younger wood, is performed in much less time, and is uniformly more suc- 

 cessful. It has been very fairly tested upon hundreds of thousand fruit 

 trees, in our gardens, for the last twenty years, and, although practised 

 English budders coming here, at first are greatly prejudiced against it, as 

 being in direct opposition to on.e of the most essential features in the old 

 mode, yet a fair trial ha§ never failed to convince them of the superiority of 

 the new."— pp. 21, 22. 



