30 ORIGIN OF THE APPLE TREE. 



shape and flavor of the fruit; but also the manner of the 

 growth of the tree, the thickness and proportion of the twigs, 

 their shooting from their parent stem, the form, color and con- 

 sistence of the leaf, and many other circumstances by which 

 the variety can be identified ; and where it is possible to 

 engraft each variety upon the same stock, they w^ould still 

 retain their discriminating qualities, with the most undevia- 

 ting certainty. 



" The proper conclusion to be drawn from the statement in 

 the last paragraph, is this, that were any to put the thought 

 in practice, on a full grown, hardy or crab stock, it would 

 produce an excellent proof that engrafted fruits are not perma- 

 nent. For if twenty different varieties were placed together, 

 so that each might receive its nurture from the same stem, 

 they would gradually die off in actual succession, according to 

 the age or state of health of the respective variety, at the 

 time the scions were placed in the stock ; and a discriminating 

 eye, used to this business, would nearly be able to foretell the 

 order in which each scion would actually decline. Should it 

 also happen that two or three suckers from the wilding stock 

 had been permitted to grow among the twenty grafts^ such 

 suckers or wilding shoots will continue and make a tree after 

 all the rest are gone. A further consequence would result 

 from the experiment : among such a number of varieties, 

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

 them out of existence, only so much the sooner. It must be 

 observed, that this supposed stem is the foster-parent to the 

 twenty scions, and real parent to the suckers ; and those the 

 least conversant with engrafted fruits know the advantage ac- 

 quired from this circumstance. And here it is worth while re- 

 marking, that a Gascoyne or wild cherry, will grow twice the 

 size that ever an engrafted cherry did. 



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

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

 first set of scions are exhausted or worn out, may carry another 

 set for many years; and we suspect a third set, provided 

 the engrafting is properly done and the engrafter chooses a 

 new variety. Now the Ribstone Pippin of Yorkshire, is the 



