STATE POMOLOaiCAL SOCIETY. 43 



from nurseries upon their own land, or in their neighborhood ; at 

 least, from nurseries in the State ; they would thereby not only 

 cause more perfect fruit to be raised, but prevent much gross im- 

 position, and save to many poor people their hard-earned dollars. 



The pomologist who devotes himself to his profession, will not 

 confine himself simply to the raising and improving fruits already 

 at his hand ; he will study to originate superior fruits. 



A notable instance of devotion to the improvement of fruits is 

 that of Professor Van Mons, at Louvain, Belgium, who gave a 

 great portion of his life to experiments in this undertaking. The 

 pear was his favorite fruit, and his success in producing new 

 varieties of great excellence was very great.* 



His practice was to take the seeds of the fruit of the best varie- 

 ties of young trees — the fruit being gathered before it was fully 

 ripe, and allowed to decay before the seeds were taken for plant- 

 ing — to select the finest seedlings when suflBcientl}' matured to 

 indicate their character, and from their fruit to take the seeds as 

 before, and to- select the most promising of the seedlings from 

 these seeds, and continue this process uninterruptedly through^ 

 five generations with the pear, four with the apple, three with the 

 peach, plum, cherry and other stone fruits. He found that each 

 succeeding generation came more quickly into bearing than the 

 next preceding, and the fruit to be of greater excellence. 



He said : " I have found this art to consist in regenerating, in a 

 direct line of descent, and as rapidly as possible, an improving 

 variety, taking care that there be no interval between the genera- 

 tions. To sow, to re-sow, to sow again, to sow perpetually, in 

 short, to do nothing but sow, is the practice to be pursued, and 

 which cannot be departed from ; and, in short, this is the whole 

 secret that I have employed." 



He found that the seeds from old trees were valueless in the 

 amelioration of fruits; the seedlings from them tending to the wild 

 state. f I^rom the seedlings raised from the seeds of young trees, 

 whose luxuriance was subdued by the removal of the tap-root, and 

 by the annual shortening of the leading side branches, he obtained 

 his improved fruits — his seedlings being allowed to bear on their 

 own roots. 



At one time the nurseries of this enthusiastic pomologist con- 

 tained no less than two thousand see'dlings of merit. 



* The Buerre Diel, De Louvain and Frederic of Wurtemberg pears, were originated 

 by Van Mons. t There are exceptions to this rule. 



