ORIGIN OF THE APPLE TREE. 31 



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

 fruit. This, however, may be certainly depended on, that 

 when a new apple is raised from seed, if a scion were placed 

 in a retired situation, and constantly cut down, as a stool in a 

 copse-wood, and the apple never suffered to fulfil the intention 

 of nature in bearing fruit, the practitioners of the following 

 ages may secure scions from that stool, to continue the variety 

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

 my power against permanency, yet I have taken some pains to 

 assure the planters, that forecast, selection, pruning, cleanli- 

 ness, and care, will make the orchards turn to more profit for 

 the. rising generations, than what they have done for the last 

 hundred years. 



" To place the nature of varieties in its true light, for the 

 information of the public, I must maintain, that the different 

 varieties of the apple will, after a certain time, decline, and 

 actually die away, and each variety, or all of the name stem 

 or family, will lose their existence in vegetation ; and yet it 

 is a well known fact, mentioned in the 17th vol. of the Trans- 

 actions^ that after the debility of age has actually taken pos- 

 session of any variety, it will yet thrive by being placed 

 agains. a southern wall and treated as a wall fruit. Who, 

 however, can afford to raise cider at that expense as a matter of 

 curiosity, to prove, that when the vital principle in vegetation 

 is nearly exhausted, a superior care and warmth will still 

 keep the variety in existence sometime longer ? 



" It should be understood that the external air of Britain is 

 rather too cool for the delicate fruits, which is the reason why 

 in the Orehardist, I lay such a stress in procuring warmth of the 

 trees, by draining^ shelter and manure. It would now be lost 

 time to attempt to recover the old varieties as an article of 

 profit. 



"If I have not expressed myself in this essay on the nature of 

 varieties^ with as much clearness and conviction as might have 

 been expected, it should be considered, that it is an abstruse 

 subject, very little understood, and requiring at first some 

 degree of faith, observation^ and perseverance. The prejudi- 

 ces of mankind revolt against it. They are not disposed to 



