The history of our fine fruits has many curious points of interest to
the zealous pomologist. It is made up of skill, felicitous blunders,
discoveries, and profitable accidents.
The Flemish pears, with which so large a portion of the calendar of
new pears is filled, were the products of scientific efforts. In like
manner, many of the finest fruits originated by Knight, were by a
scientific, although a different, process. On the other hand it would
be difficult to find fruits superior to those in the making of which
only Nature had a hand.
The _Duchesse d’Angoulême_, a pear without a rival, in its season, was
found in 1815, growing wild in a hedge, near Angers, in the department
of Maine et Loire, France.
The _Washington_, one of our finest native pears, was likewise
discovered in a thorn hedge, at Naaman’s creek, Delaware, by Gen.
Robertson. He was removing a fence on his farm about forty-five years
ago; he found the young tree nearly grown.
The _Lewis_ is a native of Massachusetts. Mr. Downer, of Dorchester, a
critical judge of fruits, was acquainted with the original tree ten
years before he thought it worth a place in his garden. He visited it
three times, and was each time disinclined to cultivate it; it was not
until he had seen a tree taken from it, growing in cultivated ground,
that he adopted it. It now ranks among the finest native pears.
_Dearborn’s Seedling_ was discovered by General Dearborn in a cluster
of syringas and rose bushes, forming a part of a border to an avenue.
Pears seem to have great fondness for hedges, borders, etc. The
discoverer attempted to remove the tree, then, apparently, about five
years old, to his nursery for a stock; but digging two feet deep, and
finding no root but the tap root, he feared that deplanting might kill
it. It was left to grow, and has proved to be one of the first-class
pears.
_Downer’s late cherry_, was a stock in the nursery row, and several
times budded with other kinds; the buds always failing, the tree was
allowed to fruit, and proved one of the best, if not _the_ best, of
late cherries.
_Knight’s Black Eagle_ was raised from the seed of the Bigarreau
fertilized by the May Duke. When it bore, the fruit was so inferior
that the London Horticultural Society peremptorily rejected it. Mr.
Knight determined to head the tree down and graft into it other sorts.
But he had given the tree to a daughter, with whom it was a favorite,
and she refused to have it sacrificed. Each year, subsequently, showed
an improvement in the fruit; and now it stands in the first class of
cherries. This is one among many instances, which show that young
seedlings do not exhibit the true qualities of the fruit for several
years after they come to bearing.
The _Red-cheek Melocoton_ peach was accidentally obtained by the late
Wm. Prince, Flushing, Long Island. He had budded the Kennedy’s
Caroline upon a stock, and below the point of inoculation a branch of
the original stock had shot up into bearing. Sending a servant to
gather the budded fruit, he was surprised by his bringing, and, as he
declared, from this tree, a free-stone peach. On examining, he found
the cause as stated above, and was so much pleased with the new kind
that he cultivated it.
* * * * *
The best stock a man can invest in, is the stock of a farm; the best
shares are plow-shares; and the best banks are the fertile banks of
the rural stream: the more these are broken the better dividends they
pay.