24 ORIGIN OF THE APPLE TREE. 



work, from the treatise of the ingenious Mr. Bucknal, and, 

 on the present occasion, we will introduce some highly impor- 

 tant remarks by the same valuable and practical writer. 



ENGRAFTED FRUITS. 



" Some friends have requested that I would introduce another 

 paper on the nature of the valuable varieties of engrafted 

 fruits, as they are of opinion that the essay in the 17th vol. of 

 the Transactions of the Society h not sufficiently extended for 

 a subject so important to fruit growers, and those interested 

 in the production of fruits. As a proof of my willingness to 

 make the orchardist as perfect as I can, I beg you to present 

 my compliments to the Society, with the following elucidations. 



" This is a subject in rural economy which ought to be 

 much better understood than it is, in order to enable the 

 planters to judge of the sorts proper to be planted, as an 

 article of pleasure, profit, or recreation, as much of the credit 

 of the plantation must arise from judiciously choosing trees 

 of the best, new, or middle aged sorts, and not of the old worn- 

 out varieties, which latter cannot, in the planting of orchards 

 in common situations, ever form valuable trees, and must end 

 in the disappointment of the planter. 



" Engrafted fruits I have before said, and I now repeat, 

 are not permanent. Every one of the least reflection must 

 see that there is an essential difference bet\\een the power and 

 energy of a seedling plant, and the tree which is to be raised 

 from cuttings or elongations. The seedling is endowed with 

 the energies of nature, while the graft or scion is nothing 

 more than a regular elongation, carried, perhaps, through the 

 several repeatings of the same variety ; whereas the seed 

 from having been placed in the earth, germinates and be- 

 comes a new plant, wherever nature permits like to produce 

 like in vegetation ; as in the oak, beach, and other mast-bear- 

 ing trees. These latter trees, from each passing through the 

 state of seedlings, are perfectly continued, and endued with 

 the functions of forming perfect seeds for raising other plants 

 by evolution, to the continuance of the like species. 



"This is not the case with engrafted fruits. They are 



