THE VAN MOXS METHOD. 7 



pears fruiting at three years,) and to produce a greater numbei 

 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 perfection, and he carried his process with this fi-uit 

 through five generations, j^pples he found needed but four races, 

 and peaches, cherries, plums, and other stone fruits, were brought 

 to perfection in three successive reproductions 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 gathers 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 vigour of the trees, and produces an impression 

 upon the nature of the seeds which will be produced by their 

 first fruit ; and, in order to continue in full force the progressive 

 Tariation, he allows his seedlings to bear on their own roots.* 



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

 varieties of fruit. It has never obtained much favour in Eng- 

 land, 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 laws, and that the great bulk of our fine varieties 

 have originated, nominally 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 frequent, is given with much apparent force as a 

 proof of the accuracy of the Van Mons theory. The first colo- 

 nists here, who brought with them many seeds gathered from 

 the best old varieties of fruits, were surprised to find their seed- 

 lings 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 gene- 

 rations, we have arrived at a great number of the finest apples, 



* " I have found this art to consist in regenerating in a direct hne of 

 descent, and as rapidly as possible, an improving variety, taking care that 

 there be no interval between the generations. 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 of the art I have employed." — Van Mons' Arhres Fruiiiers, 

 1. p. 223. 



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