" VAN Mons’

‘B35

ANIERECAN RAILROAD JOURNAL, AND

and ’a shade darker in color. It is a free
grower, and well adapted for training to a
trellis, or a round stand. Time of flower-
ing, July and August.

Opuntia vulgaris Haworlh Cactus 0pun-
tia L. (Indian fig), has been cultivated
more than two hundred years. It is too
well known to need any description 5 with
good treatment it will grow luxurianily.—-
'lts large fleshy broad stems are admirably
well adapted for grafting all the kinds 1
have now spoken of upon, which can be
done in the tollowieg very simple manner,
viz :——first, take off the cutting from the
plant that you wish to insert on the Indian
fig--then make an incision in the stem
with a sparp knife, as near the same shape
and size as possible as that. ofthe cutting ;
observe to take the piece out so as to al-
"low the scion to be inserted about an inch
deep. If this is neatly done there is no
"fear of success. Let any person imagine
the splendid effect. a large plant will have
rfour or five fleet high, spreading in every di-
rection, with some ofthe sorts here mention-
‘ed grafted on it, growing most. luxuriantly
and flowering profusely ; this I have seen
—and I can assure every reader of this
i that it was a beautiful object.

I hope ere long to see this very interest-
ing family of plants more generally cultiva-
ted, and the compost recommended in my

’ former papers tried, which I think will be
‘all that is necessary, to ensure its perina-
' nent use, in preference to the sandy soil,
destitute of any richness, which is general-
ly recommended.
Yours,
J. VV. RUSSELL.

Mount Auburn, August 8, 1836.

From the Ge nesee F urine r.

METHOD or RAISING FRUIT
TREES rnom THE SEED.

We published .a few weeks since, from
' the’ Boston Horticultural Register, Gen.
Dearborn’s introduc:ory remarks to the ac-
count given by A. Poiteau, of the means
which were employed by Van Mons to ob-
tain excellent fruit-from the seed. Omit-
ting the speculative part. of the article, we
‘here give, as briefly as the nature of the
"subject will admit, the most interesting and

A useful facts, which were developed during
' the course ofthe experiments of Van Mons,
' ivithgthe hope that it may induce others to

i follow hisexample, even though it be on a

' very limited scale.

Van Mons’ laid‘. the ground-work for his
experiments by collecting, during excur-
. sions through every part of the surround-

ing country, wild and natural stocks offruit

trees, which exhibited a favorable appear-
ance,.and which, from his familiarity with
, the characteristics, he was enabled at once
_to select. By means of these acquisitions,

' and repeated sowings from them, he had,

inrafew years, 80,000 fruit trees in his

~ ‘irurseryi, which enabled him to make his ex-

periments on a large scale, and to obtain

fresui‘ts~ more promptly and with greater

certainty. “ His repeated successive sow-
ings,” says Poiteau, “ of annual flowers,

’-J'a“r":d‘pterent1ial shrubs which grew and frac-
~- ififigid in-.3 short time ; his excursions to

l

"}*6bserve»tl1e~l\vild type of our fruit trees, in

places where they grew and reproduced in
a state of nature ; his new generations,
which were obtained from wild and free
or natural stocks, as well as from the first
sowings in his nursery , his thousand upon
thousand of observations collected from
every quarter, have enabled Mr. Van Mons
to establish a law which admits of no ex-
ceptions ; this law is, that so long as plants
remain in their natural situation, they do
not sensibly vary, and their seeds always
produce the same ; but, on changing their
climate and territory, several among them
vary, some more and others less, and when
they have once departed from tiicir natural
sta.e, they never again return to it, but are
removed more and more therefrom, by suc-
cessive geneiations. and prod ucc, sufficient-
ly often, distinct races, more or less dura-
ble ; and that finally, it’ these varieties are
even carried back to the territory of their
ancestors, they will neither represent the
character of their parents, nor even return
to the species [vat'icties] from whence they
sprung.”

Another very important conclusion at
which Van Mons arrived from a long series
of observations, was this :——VVh1le pear
trees, in a state of nature, and in their 11 --
tive soil, always reproduce seeds, without
any sensible variation ; the seeds"which a
domesticated pear,—that is to say, one that
has been for a long time in a state ofvaria-
tion in consequence of a change of climate
or other cause,—yields at its /zundreslt/1
fructiiication, produce trees not only very
different from itself, but still very different
from trees which have been produced from
the seed of its firs! fructification ; and the
older a domesticated pi-ar becomes, the
nearer do the trees produced from its latest
seeds, approach to a state of nature, with-
out, however, ever returning to it. Having
arrived at this conviction, he concluded that

“ by sowing the first seeds ofa new variety
ollftuit trees, there sh iuld be obtained tree..-
always variable in their seeds, because they
can no longer escape from this state of
variation, and which are less disposed to
return toward a wild state, than those pro-
duced from seeds of an ancient variety ;
and as those which tend toward a wild state
have less chance of becoming perfect ac-
cording to our tastes, than th se which are
in the open field of variation, it is in the
seminary of the first seeds of the newest
varieties of fruit trees, that we should expect
to find more perfect fruits.”

The above quotation comprises the whole
theory of Van Mons. “ It was to verify it,
and put it in practice, that from that period
he collected in his nursery young wild trees,
young free stocks,*" and sowed large quan-
tities of the seeds and stones, of various
kinds of fruit trees, in order to have their
fir-st fruits, and sow their seeds in turn to
obtain a generation, of whose novelty he
was sure, and to take it as a point of depar-
ture for his experiments. Although Mr.Van
Mons operated on thousands of various kinds
and different varieties of trees at the samr
time, I will assume, in order to render what
I say more clear, in explaining his prugreSSs

*That is, natural stocks from domesticated varie-
ties.

that he made his experiments on a single
variety of pear.

“ As soon as the young pear tree with
which he began his experiments, produced
its lirst fruit, Mr. Van Mons sowed the
seeds. There resulted a first generation,
the individuals of which, although of very
different kinds, did not resemble their pa-
rent. He cultivated them with care, and
endeavored t.o hasten their growth. as much
as possible, by all the known means in his
power. These young trees yielded fruit,
which were generally small, and almost all
of them had. He sowed thetseed of these,
and obtained a second generation without
l'1l€l‘l‘upti011-—WlllCl1 is very impor’ ant-—that
were very ditlicreut in kind, but did not re-
semble their parent, although they had a
less wild appearance than their predeces-
sors. These were cultivated with equal
attention, and they fructified earlier than
had their parent. The fruits of this second
generation also varied us much as the trees
which bore them, but part of them appeared
less near the wild state than the preceding];
yet only a few possessed the requisite qual-
ities to enti.le them to preservation. Con-
stant i.i his plan, Mr. Van Mons sowed the
seeds, and obtained a third continued gene-
ration, the greater part of the young trees
of which had a p/zasis of good augury, that
is, something of the physiognomy of our
good domesticated pear trees, and they
were consequently less various in appear-
ance. Being careliilly cultivated, as had
been the preceding, these trees of the third
generation fructified still earlier than.-had
those of the second generation. Several
ofthem produced edible fruit, although not
yet dec dedly good, but sufficiently amelior-
ated to convince Mr Van Mons-that he
had discovered the true path to ameliora-
tion, and that he should continue to follow
it. He also recognized, with not less sat-
isfaction, that the oftener the generations
succeeded each other, without interruption,
the more promptly did they fructify it. The
seeds of the fruit of this third generation,
which had a good appearance, were sowed,
and the trees managed as carefully as the
preceding, and produced a fourth genera-
tion, the trees of which were a little less
varied, and nearly all of them had an ap-
pearance of favorable augury ; they fructi-
fied in a shorter time than the third genera-
tion; many of the fruits were good, several
excellent, but a small number still bad.-—
He again took the seeds of the best kinds
of tho.-‘e pears, sowed them and obtained a
fifth generation, the trees of which were
less various than the preceding, fructified
sooner, and produced more good and ex-
cellent fruits, than those of the fourth.” _,_

He continued his experiments till 183.4,
when he had reached the eighth generpnpp,
and at each he always obtained fruit more
and more perfect.

“ Mr. Van Mons made the same experi-
ment on almost all the other kinds offruits.
The apple yielded no other than good fruit
in the fourth generation. The stone fruits,
as the peach, apricot, plum, and cherry, be-
came perfect in a still shorter time ; all of
them produced good and excellent fruits in
the third generation; which should be the