PLANT bre;e;ding. 151 



lings were planted closely in nursery rows and often checked 

 by pruning, with the thought that to improve the fruit the 

 original rank growth of the tree must be subdued or enfeebled. 

 From the first fruits produced, and the fruit was always gath- 

 ered before it was fully ripened, seeds were saved and sown 

 again; and this practice was continued generation after gener- 

 ation. The whole process was, to use his own words: "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." Van Mons' work, which was largely con- 

 fined to pears, was begun in 1785. Thirty years later, in 1823, 

 when he had commenced distributing scions freely throughout 

 the world, he had 80,000 seedling trees in his nursery. At this 

 time his first catalogue was issued and in it 1050 pears are 

 mentioned by name or number. Of this list 405 were his own 

 creation and 200 of them had been considered worthy of naming, 

 among them being some of the varieties which are still raised 

 the world over, including Diel, Bosc, Colmar, Manning's Eliza- 

 beth, and many others of equal merit. Many of these varieties 

 found their way into America, chiefly through the efforts of 

 Robert Manning of Massachusetts. 



Whatever may be thought as to his theories, there is no 

 doubt that Van Mons accomplished more than any other single 

 individual up to the middle of the nineteenth century in breed- 

 ing new and valuable fruits. Without discussing the principles 

 for the establishment of which Van Mons was working, it is 

 enough to say that in some of his series the generations came 

 into bearing earlier and earlier until in the fifth generations of 

 certain pears, he was able to secure fruit at 3 years from 

 seed. As already intimated, however, this was at least partly 

 brought about by the system of enfeebling and consequent 

 encouragement of the habits of precocity, and by cumulative 

 selection. Probably no worker with plants has ever given to 

 the world so clear a demonstration of the value of selection as 

 Van Mons; and this demonstration is worth all of the efforts 

 put forth, even though this was made in the attempt to prove 

 another and, as is now believed, erroneous doctrine. 



