MAY. 137 



where an attempt is made to contravene this natural law, abortion is 

 the result, or the produce, whether animal or vegetable, if it survives, 

 is degenerate or imperfect. Let a Pear (the case is applicable to 

 any other kind of fruit tree) contain a pound of nutrition, or natural 

 food, ready to be attracted into its spurs, let each receive a drachm of 

 such food, then the tree may carry 256 spurs, supposing the food to be 

 equally distributed. But if a thousand such spurs are present, it is 

 probable, not that 750 will be starved and 250 fed, but that the whole 

 will be starved : in the struggle among them for food none will obtain 

 what is requisite to sustain lite, and all will perish." The truth of the 

 foregoing Mr. Bailey will not, I think, question. If, then, those trees 

 in the " Apricot villages " have never failed in bearing "■heavy crops 

 for many years running,^'' must we not conclude that at the end of 

 these " many years " bearing heavy crops, the fruit is worthless — as 

 in reality it is — and not like the fine spotted, rosy, large, luscious fruit, 

 which the trees here bear annually — not biennially — and which many 

 gardeners can corroborate ? 



I know a Vinery, which, like the trees in the " Aprico!; villages," 

 has, for " many years running,''' borne very heavy crops of Grapes. 

 The person to whom it belongs once told me, that he had the finest 

 crop of Grapes in England. When I inqu^'red how many bunches were 

 on each Vme, I was told, upwards of forty bunches. I saw some of 

 these Grapes afterwards — and such Grapes — as much like Grapes as 

 the Apricots of the " Apricot villages " are like Apricots ; they were 

 Grapes in name only — not such as Mr. Bailey would like to acknowledge 

 as his growing, nor were they such Grapes as I have exhibited at the 

 ]\Iidsummer Shows at York the last four years successively, and to 

 which was awarded the first prize each season. 



Need I tell Mr. Bailey, I did not leave forty bunches on a Vine. — 

 No, I am sure I need not. In size of berry, for colour, bloom, and 

 flavour, better Grapes than these were never exhibited at the Chiswick 

 shows in their palmiest days : I have seen larger bunches. Yet there 

 was no mystery in the growth of these Grapes. The house is an old 

 lean-to, heated with a flue ; but bear in mind, the border is all 

 right — the roots do not perish in the winter — the Vines are never 

 overcropped — the berries are always thinned immediately they are set, 

 the wood is also kept thin, not overcrowded : these, with proper attention 

 in heating and giving air, are ah the means that were adopted 

 in the production of these Grapes. And here I would ask how it 

 happens, that we do not always see Grapes of superior quality in all 

 Vineries, which we ought, if glass and heat were all that is required : 

 — the cause is in badly made and badly drained borders, together with 

 bad management. So it is with the covering of wall-fruit trees, if not 

 accompanied with good management. Apricots, in the market here, 

 were, last year, four shillings per score ; this season, the best samples 

 will not be more than two shillings per score, and I make no doubt 

 there will be some samples, as there were two years ago — like the 

 Apricots of the " Apricot villages " — that will not realise more than 

 fourpence per score. 



Mr. Bailey says, " Why is it that we almost always see the appa- 



