100 



THE GARDENER'S ASSISTANT. 



The plan was based upon the belief that the 

 tendency in cultivated Pears is for their seed- 

 lings to revert to a wild form, especially when 

 the seed is from old trees, whereas seed gathered 

 from a young tree of a good variety may pro- 

 duce seedlings of equal or even superior merit. 

 He also considered that similar results followed 

 when taking the seeds from old varieties, which 

 were more likely to give unsatisfactory results 

 than those from a variety of more recent pro- 

 duction. Van Mons therefore raised seedlings 

 from young trees of new and meritorious varie- 

 ties, selecting the most promising of these, as 

 regards habit, to grow on and produce fruit. 

 From these again the best were selected and 

 seed again sown, and this process was continued 

 until the fifth generation (or sowing) was 

 reached, the time required for the fruiting 

 being reduced in each case until the fifth only 

 required three years to produce fruit. When 

 this stage was reached the best varieties were 

 selected for increase by budding or graftin. 

 As part of the system, which was directed to 

 the reduction of the natural vegetative vigour 

 of the seedlings, the fruits were gathered before 

 they were ripe, and then allowed to decay be- 

 fore the seeds were taken from them. Further, 

 the seedlings all had their tap-roots shortened, 

 and were planted close together. 



This is probably the most elaborate system 

 of selective improvement that has ever been 

 employed in horticulture, quicker methods 

 being resorted to now. Still, the principle 

 is suggestive, and is applicable to other 

 fruits and plants, with a less expenditure 

 of time. Downing has pointed out that 

 the theory has had a certain amount of 

 exemplification in the United States of 

 America, because the earlier settlers took 

 seeds there of some of the best old Euro- 

 pean varieties, the large majority of which 

 proved worthless. But as time went on, 

 and seed was sown from the best of these, 

 there has been a gradual improvement, until 

 numbers of excellent fruits of native origin 

 have been produced in increasing numbers, 

 without any further artificial aid than 

 the continual selection of the most promising. 



Another simpler and more expeditious method 

 of improvement by selection is that in which the 

 seedlings, when large enough, are budded or 

 grafted upon a dwarfing or precocious stock, 

 and treated generously to secure the early and 

 full development of the fruit to enable the culti- 

 vator to judge whether it is worthy of preser- 

 vation or not. The chief difficulties in this are 



— 1st, considerable labour is required; 2nd, large 

 numbers have to be grafted which are ulti- 

 mately discarded; and 3rd, a new Pear, when 

 selected, frequently does not develop its full 

 characters in its early stages, and in the course 

 of a few years may prove to be either better 

 or worse than it was at first thought to be. 

 Practically this method is generally followed by 

 the majority of raisers of new Pears (as well 

 as of other fruits) both in Britain and elsewhere 

 at the present time. 



The third, and most scientifically promising 

 system, is that of intercrossing the varieties 

 whose characters it is desired to combine or 

 improve, and the attention that is now being 

 paid to this matter is likely to yield important 

 results. 



Thomas Andrew Knight was one of the first 

 to commence the work in a systematic manner 



Fig. 898.— Pear. Monarch. 



in England, but though a century has elapsed 

 since he began his experiments in crossing Pears 

 and other fruits, it is only within compara- 

 tively recent times that his work has been taken 

 up in the same manner. Unfortunately few of 

 Knight's Pears have withstood the test of time. 

 Amongst these are Althorp Crasanne and Mon- 

 arch (fig. 898), the latter Dr. Hogg considered to 

 be the best of all the Knightian seedlings. It is 



