THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 19 
but pioneers seldom exert wide and deep influence at once —leave the worn 
path, so to speak, and at once construct a macadamized road — yet this 
was what Van Mons did. Pomologists agree that until his time no man 
had exerted so profound an influence on pomology. His love of discovery 
and love of labor permeated fruit-growing in Europe and America. 
Fortunately, it was the age of the amateur fruit-grower. Pleasure and 
progress, driven by curiosity, counted for more than commercial success, 
so that Van Mons’ new varieties at once gave him wide fame. He was 
made known to American pear-growers by Robert Manning who distributed 
his new varieties in this country and described them in the horticultural 
literature of the day and in his Book of Fruits published in 1838. Later, 
Andrew Jackson Downing, the brilliant genius of American horticulture, 
published Van Mons’ theories and described many of his new pears in 
his Fruits and Fruit Trees, which came from the press in 1845. Thus, 
Van Mons became the recognized authority in America on all matters 
relating to the pear. Indeed, it is hardly too much to say that we owe 
him obligations as the founder of pear-culture in this country. 
But the work of the Belgians does not end with Van Mons. There 
were other breeders of pears, who, though not to be classed with Van Mons 
as a Titan, lacking the quality of mind to set forth a new philosophy, helped 
to enliven the impulse given by their leader to the improvement of the 
pear by originating new varieties. Chief of these are Major Espéren, of 
Malines, who introduced twenty of the pears mentioned in the Pears of 
New York; Bivort, who has twenty-three to his credit; Gregoire, forty-two; 
Simon Bouvier, eleven; De Jonghe, six; and De Nelis, five. While, if 
the lists of varieties in the last two chapters of this text be scanned for 
Belgians who introduced but one, two, or three new pears, the list runs 
up into the hundreds. Labor finds its summit in the work of these Belgian 
pear-breeders, who obtained petty rewards by sifting millions of seedlings 
through the coarse meshes of the sieve of selection. We can pardon these 
enthusiastic breeders with grace for over-zealousness in naming varieties 
obtained with such prodigious efforts. 
THE PEAR IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE 
The pear can be improved only where the pear-tree flourishes, and 
then only when assisted by the foresight and desire of men. This happy 
combination seems not to exist in Europe outside of Italy, France, Belgium, 
and England. The pear flourishes along the Danube, in parts of Austria 
