•118 
THE FRUIT TREES OF AMERICA. 
Yet Van Mons was one of the raisers to 
whom we are far more indebted than to any 
other person for splendid fruits. Van Mons' 
notion of the proper system for raising new 
fruits was much the same as that of the old 
Tulip growers, who used to save seed from 
the breeders which had not perfected their 
colours, instead of the approved fine varieties 
which had. Mr. Knight's opinion was like 
that of the modern Tulip growers, who cross 
the line varieties one with the other, and so 
produce something with the qualities of both. 
" The Van Mons theory may be briefly 
stated as follows : — 
" All fine fruits are artificial products ; the 
aim of nature, in a wild state, being only a 
healthy, vigorous state of the tree, and perfect 
needs for continuing the species. It is the 
object of culture,- therefore, to subdue, or en- 
feeble this excess of vegetation ; to lessen the 
coarseness of the tree to diminish the size of 
the seeds ; and to refine the quality and in- 
crease the size of the flesh or pulp. 
" There is always a tendency in our varie- 
ties of fruit trees, to return by their seeds 
towards a wild state. 
" This tendency is most strongly shown in 
the seeds borne by old fruit trees. And ' the 
older the tree is of any cultivated variety of 
pear,' says Dr. Van Mons, ' the nearer will 
the seedlings, raised from it, approach a wild 
state; without, however, ever being able to 
return to that state.' 
" On the other hand, the seeds of a young 
fruit tree of a good sort, being itself in the 
state of amelioration, have the least tendency 
to retrograde, and are the most likely to pro- 
duce improved sorts. 
" Again, there is a certain limit to perfec- 
tion in fruits. When this point is reached, as 
in the finest varieties, the next generation will 
more probably produce bad fruit, than if 
reared from seeds of an indifferent sort, in the 
course of amelioration. While, in other words, 
the seeds of the oldest varieties of good fruit 
mostly yield inferior sorts, seeds taken from 
recent varieties of bad fruit, and reproduced 
uninterruptedly for several generations, will 
certainly produce good fruit. 
" With these premises, Dr. Van Mons be- 
gins by gathering his seeds from a young 
seedling tree, without paying much regard to 
its quality, except that it must be in a state of 
variation; that is to say, a garden variety, 
and not a wild sort. These he sows in a seed- 
bed or nursery, where he leaves the seedlings 
until they attain sufficient size to enable him 
to judge of their character. He then selects 
those which appear the most promising, plants 
•them a few feet distant in the nursery, and 
awaits their fruit. Not discouraged at finding 
most of them of mediocre quality, though 
differing from the parent, he gathers the first 
seeds of the most promising, and sows them 
again. The next generation comes more ra- 
pidly into bearing than the first, and shows a 
greater number of promising traits. Gather- 
ing immediately, and sowing the seeds of this 
generation, he produces a third, then a fourth, 
and even a fifth generation, uninterruptedly, 
from the original sort. Each generation he 
finds to come more quickly into bearing than 
the previous one, (the fifth sowing of pears 
fruiting at three years,) and to produce a 
greater number of valuable varieties ; until in 
the fifth generation the seedlings are nearly 
all of great excellence. 
" Dr. Van Mons found the pear to require 
the longest time to attain perfection, and he 
carried his process with this fruit through five 
generations. Apples he found needed but four 
races ; and peaches, cherries, plums, and other 
stone fruits, were brought to perfection in 
three successive reproductions from the seed." 
—Pp. 6, 7. 
Mr. Knight's success in raising fruit trees 
was owing to his plan of what is very erro- 
neously called, hybridizing. He would fer- 
tilize the pistil of one fruit with the pollen 
of another, and from the seeds produced he 
raised trees, among which, some partook of 
the good qualities of both. Our author de- 
scribes the process of crossing very clearly; 
but this has been done so well, and so often, 
and withal so long ago, that we need not 
quote it ; nor is the following new to our 
readers, though it may be to some : it is the 
very natural conclusion which we have drawn 
in some of our papers on hybridizing, as it is 
improperly called; but it is in point. 
" In order to obtain a new variety of a cer- 
tain character, it is only necessary to select 
two parents of well known habits, and which 
are both varieties of the same, or nearly allied 
species, and cross them for a new and inter- 
mediate variety. Thus, if we have a very 
early, but insipid, and worthless sort of pear, 
and desire to raise from it a variety both early 
and of fine flavour, we should fertilize some 
of its pistils, with the pollen of the best 
flavoured variety of a little later maturity. 
Among the seedlings produced, we should 
look for early pears of good quality, and at 
least for one or two varieties nearly, or quite 
as early as the female parent, and as delicious 
as the male. If we have a very small, but 
highly flavoured pear, and wish for a larger 
pear with a somewhat similar flavour, we 
must fertilize the first with the pollen of a 
large and handsome sort. If we desire to im- 
part the quality of lateness to a very choice 
plum, we must look out for a late variety, 
whether of good or bad quality, as the mother, 
and cross it with our best flavoured sort. If 
