BBEEDEBS 



234 ARID AQEICULTUEE. 



natural accidental changes rather than to im- 

 provements by men through the use of plant 

 breeding. 



While the great impetus to plant breeding 

 dates back only to the publication of Darwin's 

 "Origin of Species," in 1859, some breeders had 

 done considerable work over one hundred years 

 previous to that, ^fost of this work consisted of 

 selection only, to separate out, or pedigree the 

 elementary species which had originated acci- 

 dentally, probably through mutations, or 

 "sports" arising in ordinary farm culture. A 

 few of the more important names are those of 

 Von Mons, who began to experiment in 1YS.5 

 and in ] 823 had 20,000 seedling trees in his 

 "Xursery of Fidelity," in Holland. He gave 

 his attention almost wholly to pears, and created 

 important new varieties of fruit. Professor 

 Bailey has given Von Mons credit for being the 

 earliest apostle for selection and amelioration of 

 plants. 



Another early explorer in the field of plant 

 breeding was Joseph Cooper of N^ew Jersey, who 

 in 1Y99 called attention to the fact that "Change 

 of seed is not necessary to prevent degeneracy." 

 He originated the Cooper plum and some othev 

 plants of importance. At the same time, An- 

 drew Knight, in England, took up studies to dc 

 termine the l)est means to impro\'e plants. In 

 1:806 he wrote: "Xew varieties of every species 



