©N FRUIT TREES, 233 



engraft each variety upon the fame flock, they would ftill Fa^s refpeaing 

 retain their difcriminating qualities, with the mofl undeviating thSTdegree of * 

 certainty, permanence, &c. 



The proper conclufion to be drawn from the ftatement in 

 the laft paragraph, is this — that were any one to put the 

 thought in pradice on a full-grown hardy or crab flock, it 

 would produce an excellent proof that engrafted fruits are not 

 permanent. For if twenty different varieties were placed to- 

 gether, fo that each might receive its nurture from the fame 

 flem, they would gradually die off in aftual fucceffion^ ac- 

 cording to the age or flate of health of the refpedive variety, 

 at the time the fcions were placed in the flock ; and a difcri- 

 minating eye, ufed to this bufinefs, would nearly be able to 

 foretell the order in which each fcion would aflually decline. 

 Should it alfo happen that two or three fuckers from the wild- 

 ing (lock had been permitted to grow among the twenty grafts, 

 fiich fuckers or wilding (hoots will continue, and make a tree 

 afier all the reft are gone. A further confequence would re- 

 fult from the experiment : among fuch a number of varieties, 

 each of the free growers would ftarve the delicate, and drive 

 them out of exiftence only fo much the fooner. ft mufl be 

 obferved, that this fuppofed ftem is the fofter-parent to the 

 twenty fcions, and real parent to the fuckers ; and thofe the 

 leaft converfant with engrafted fruits know the advantage ac- 

 iquired from this circumftance. And here it is worth while 

 remarking, that a Gafcoyne, or wild cherry, will grow to 

 twice the fize that ever an engrafted cherry did. 



By an experiment we have had in hand for five years, it 

 will appear that the roots and fiem of a large tree, after the 

 firft fetof fcions are exhaufted or Worn out, may carry another 

 fet for many years ; and we fufpe6l a third fet, provided the 

 engrafting is properly done, and the engrafter choofes a new 

 variety. Now the Ripfton pippin, of Yorkfliire, is the fa- 

 vourite, as being a free grower and good bearer, with fine 

 fruit. This however may be certainly depended on, that 

 when a new apple is raifed from feed, if a fcion were placed 

 in a retired fituation, and conftantly cut down, as a (lool in a 

 copfe-wood, and the apple never fuffered to fulfil the intentions 

 of nature in bearing fruit, the pra6litioners of the following 

 ages may fecure fcions from that ftool, to continue the variety 

 much longer. Hence, though I have written as much as is in 



my 



