186a. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



333 



The summer has been so moist that the coun- 

 try appears rich and beautiful. The fields are 

 green, many of them blooming with clover, and 

 tlie foliage of the forests bright, and of a dark, 

 rich green. 



Very truly yours, Simon Brown. 



Messrs. Nourse, Eaton & ToiMXS. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ON" RAISING SEEDLINGS. 

 Fears. 



AM New Varieties from Seeil— Interesting Subject — Influences 

 Independent of Pollen — Theory of the Belgians — Our Success 

 — Natural and Artificial Hybridization — Van Mons's Trogress- 

 ive Theory — Is it the Best .'—Influence of the Stock on the Seed 

 — Voung Seedlings — Signs of Good Ones — Complexity and Un- 

 certainty, 



Much attention is now given by some horticul- 

 turists in this country to the raising of new varie- 

 ties of j)ears, apples and grapes. It is from seed 

 alone that all new varieties are produced. Of 

 course, alPour old, as well as new sorts, are seed- 

 lings, though in horticultural language only the 

 new ones, before dissemination are designated by 

 that term. 



The raising of new varieties of fruit is a very 

 interesting matter, exciting new hopes from year 

 to year, though attended with much disappoint- 

 ment, as the general tendency of ameliorated fruits 

 is to run back to their original type. It would 

 seem, then, that there are other causes — besides 

 the pollen of surrounding trees — which tend, in 

 most cases, to impair the quality of fruit, or in 

 others to improve it ; for if the seed were in- 

 fluenced by the poilen alone, its fruit could not be 

 any worse than those surrounding it, (and in cul- 

 tivated gardens they are good ameliorated sorts, to 

 say the least,) nor can we conceive how it could 

 be any better than that of some one adjoining it. 

 Perhaps it is not ; but the tendency the other way 

 is proverbial. We should not forget, however, 

 that the whole subject is very complex, and but 

 few if any certain laws are deduced from it. 



The raising of impwced varieties of pears, it is 

 believed by some, has not been accomplished so 

 successfully from the seed of the best kinds as 

 from those of ordinary quality, continued to the 

 fourth or fifth generation. At least, such is the 

 experience of the Belgian cultivators, as Van 

 MoNS and others, and of Duiiamel and the Ai.- 

 FROYS in France — the two latter never being able 

 to raise a good seedling from the best pears of 

 that country, although their atteinpts were many. 

 But in America our experience is the reverse ; for 

 we have been able to produce excellent sorts from 

 other excellent sorts, many of them having in ail- 

 dition, good size, hardiness, fruitfulness, &c. Im- 

 provement is an accidental matter, unless we re- 

 sort to artificial impregnation ; and even then the 

 result of the two varieties may not be what we 

 had a physiological right to expect. 



The seeds of fruit trees reproduce their species, 

 not their varieties, except generally some wild 

 fruits of the forest. For instance, the seed of a 

 Bartlett pear will produce a pear, but not a Bart- 

 lett pear ; it may be better, probably worse. The 

 winds and insects carrying pollen for miles, there 

 is no approach to certainty m producing fruit, ex- 

 cept by a resort to artificial hybridization, by which 

 we hope to get a cross between two kinds. 



In raising new varieties of the pear, the in- 



defatigable Van Mons, of Belgium, fills a bril- 

 liant page in history for his unwearied efforts and 

 success. Probably very few, if any, will have the 

 courage to do likewise ; and we think there is no 

 occasion for it. This gentleman, as is well known, 

 believed in the progression of ordinary sorts to a 

 better, by the continued replanting of their seeds. 

 His aim was to check the wild vigor, to soften the 

 austerity, and to lessen the acidity of the unculti- 

 vated varieties. To this end he picked his fruit 

 before fully ripe, suffering them to mature their 

 seed off' the tree, and kept his trees well trimmed 

 in nursery rows. In harmony with his idea of 

 progressive amelioration, he fo'rebore to graft his 

 new seedlings on foreign stocks, through fear of 

 the influence of such stock and the interruption of 

 the progressive order. The idea, however, of 

 compelling seedlings to bear on their own stocks, 

 did not seem to be a necessity among the Belgian 

 horticulturists as with him. Besides shortening 

 the process by earlier fruiting, we should suppose 

 that, by transferring the new fruit to other stocks, 

 the amelioration would also have been hastened ; 

 for the tendency of grafting is to improve the 

 quality and size of fruit, besides inducing earlier 

 bearing. Further, it is difficult to admit of any 

 order of progression in the generations of his seed- 

 lings, where in a large nursery so much and varied 

 pollen is afloat. His system was founded on acci- 

 dental impregnation — a very difficult matter to re- 

 concile with any .order, rule or sequence, aside 

 from the supposed or real influence of a foreign 

 stock. Nevertheless, Van Mons has given the 

 world some excellent pears, whether in harmony 

 with his theory, or in spite of it, it is not for me 

 to say. But he raised thousands of seedlings, and 

 the question whether a greater proportion of good 

 ones may not be obtained some other way, is per- 

 haps an open one, although some have thought 

 that Mr. Dana, of Iloxbury, has decided it, who 

 planted from the best sorts, and transferred their 

 scions to foreign stocks. 



What the influence of a foreign stock is upon 

 the seed of an inserted fruit, we shall probably 

 never know. It may sometimes be favorable, and 

 at others unfavorable. One thing we do know, 

 that seedlings as excellent as those of Van Mons, 

 (to say nothing of proportion, in this connection,) 

 can be raised on such stocks, as is shown from our 

 numerous and valuable native kinds, which prob- 

 ably were nearly all from the seed of grafted fruit 

 accidentally hybridized. Nearly a hundred of 

 these pears are in the catalogues, and their num- 

 ber is annually increasing. The new and excel- 

 lent seedlings of Mr. Clapp, known as "Clajip's 

 Favorite," is thought to be a product of the Bart- 

 lett. One would suppose that the order of pro- 

 gression in so excellent a fruit as the Bartlett had 

 reached its culminating point ; but if there is such 

 a law, it would seem that it had not, for this new 

 seedling has the reputation of being a little better 

 than its parent. And so by carrying some of Van 

 Mons's seedlings still farther, we may get better 

 fruit, even if these seedlings have been grown on 

 other stocks. 



Very young seedling pears vary much in their 

 power of growth, as everyone would suppose; 

 but some of them are remarkably slow, remaining 

 almost stationary in size for several years, after 

 having reached a few inches in height. In the 

 winter they shoidd be mulched, to prevent the 



