ON FRUIT TREES. Q35 



9lernal powers of duration : nothing fublunary, however, Fafts refyc&.lng 

 which poflefles either animal or vegetable life, is exempt from ^illf^^J^*^^^^' 

 age and death. permanence, 



Within the laft twenty years I have travelled many hundred ^'^' 

 miles, and converfed with the moft intelligent men in each 

 country ; and I now want to convince mankind, for no other 

 reafon than becaufe it is their intereft fo to believe, that there 

 i« in creation an order of beings (engrafted fruits) fo formed, 

 that we have the power of multiplying a fingle variety, to 

 whatever number of trees we pleafe; — that the firft fet arifes 

 from a fmall feed ; — that the next and defcendent fets are 

 propagated by engraftings, or from cuttings, layers, &c. ; — 

 and that although thefe trees may amount to millions, yet, 

 on the death of the primogenious or parent ftock, merely from 

 old-age, or nihility of growth, each individual fliall decline, 

 in whatever country they may be, or however endued with 

 youth and health. I fay they fliall gradually begin to decline; 

 and in the courfe of time, or of centuries, to thofe who would 

 prefer that expreffion, the whole varieCj/ will fcarcely have a 

 fingle tree remaining to (how what the fruit was. Let thofe 

 who are not difpofed to aflent to this flatement, alii them- 

 felves what is become of the old loft varieties ? did they die, 

 or did wicked men malicioufly cut them up ? 



I, who am firmly convinced of the truth of what I have 

 advanced on this fubje61, have no doubt but that the fame 

 would happen by engrafting on the Oak or Beech, if the 

 maft raifed from the engrafted tree did not produce the like ; 

 for there the queftion turns. 



Is it not known, that the woodman, in fetting out his 

 fapling oaks, always feleds new feedling plants, and nevef 

 continues one upon an old ftool ; and that if he (hould fo 

 blunder, that tree, from the flool, will neither have the free- 

 dom of growth, nor the lize or lirmnefs of timber, equal to a 

 new-raifed plant. 



I wifli I could perfuade my friends, that, with the fame 

 attention with which the woodman a£ls, the planter is to raife' 

 his orchard from the young fruits which thrive in the neigh-, 

 bourhood, or are in health and full bearing in the country 

 whence they are to be brought. 



The fruit-grower fhould look to feledion, cleanlinefs, and 

 care. To me it is a circuraftance perfedly indiiferent, whe- 

 ther 



