The numerous differences in flavor are
quite original; all of them may be found in the wild state and most of
them even in so limited a region as the Ardennes Mountains. Of course
van Mons preferred not to start from the wild types themselves, when the
same flavor could be met with in some cultivated variety. His general
method was, to search for a new flavor and to try to bring the bearer of
it up to the desired standard of size and edibility.
The latter improvement, though it always makes the impression of an
achievement, is only the last stone to be added to the building up of
the commercial value of the variety. Without it, the best flavored apple
remains a crab; with it, it becomes a conquest. According to the method
of van Mons it may be reached within [78] two or three generations, and
a man's life is wholly sufficient to produce in this way many new types
of the very best sorts, as van Mons himself has done. It is done in the
usual way, sowing on a large scale and selecting the best, which are in
their turn brought to an early maturation of their fruit by grafting,
because thereby the life from seed to seed may be reduced to a few
years.
Form, taste, color, flavor and other valuable marks of new varieties are
the products of nature, says van Mons, only texture, fleshiness and size
are added by man.
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