44 AaiEKICAN POMOLOGY. 



The following facts have been elicited from correspond- 

 ence vrith ri. P. Brayshaw, of Du Quoin, Illinois. The 

 experiments were instituted by his father many years ago, 

 to test the truth of the Van Mons' theory of the improve- 

 ment of fruits by using only the first seeds. 



Thirty-five years ago, in 1827, his fiither procured twen- 

 ty-five seedling trees from a nursery, which may be sup- 

 posed to have been an average lot, grown from promiscu- 

 ous seed. These were planted, and when they came into 

 bearing, six of them furnished fruit that miglit bo called 

 " ffood," and of these, " four were considered Jine." One 

 of tlie six is still in cultivation, and known as the Illitiols 

 Greening. Of the remainder of the trees, some of the 

 fruits were fair, and the rest were worthless, and have 

 disappeared. 



Second Generation. — The first fruits of these trees 

 were selected, and the seeds were sown. Of the resulting 

 crop, some furnished fi-uit that waS " good," but thej' do 

 not appear to have merited much attention. 



Third Generation. — From first seeds of the above, one 

 hundred trees were produced, some of which were good 

 fruit, and some " even fine," while some were very poor, 

 " four or five only merited attention." So that we see a 

 retrogression from the random seedlings, fuinishing twen- 

 ty-five per cent, of good fruit, to only four or five per cent, 

 in the third generation, that were worthy of note. 



Fourth Generation. — A crop of the first seed was ai-ain 

 sown, producing a fourth generation ; of these many were 

 "good cuhnary fruits," none, or very few bt-ing of the 

 " poorest class of seedlings," none of them, however, were 

 fine enough " for the dessert." 



