2 2 SEEDLING TREES. 



Jam quae seminibus jactis se sustulit arbos 

 Tarda venit, seris factura nepotibus umbram. 



Virgil, Geor. II. 578. 



But slowly comes the tree which thou hast sown 

 A canopy for grandsons of thine own. 



Blakemore^ trans. 



Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight found from his experience that 

 Apple-tree seedlings took from five to twelve years to come into 

 bearing ; whilst Pear-tree seedlings do not bear fruit until they are 

 from twelve to eighteen years old. Seedling fruit trees moreover 

 are for the most part worthless, and they should never therefore be 

 planted out in the Orchards until their value has been tested very 

 carefully. The direct and only satisfactory manner of doing this is 

 to examine the juice of the ripe fruit by the Saccharometer, which 

 will show its richness by its density. The result is so rarely favour- 

 able that much patient perseverance is required. A special exhibi- 

 tion of Seedling fruit trees was held at Yvetot in Normandy, when 

 172 selected varieties were sent for examination. Nine only of these 

 furnished a rich juice of high density. Again, Monsieur Legrand of 

 Yvetot, out of 65 carefully grown Seedlings, obtained only one single 

 variety worth cultivating. Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight met with 

 the same result, for amongst the many thousands of Seedlings he 

 grew, few indeed proved to be of any value. 



The advantages of Seedling trees are very great. They are 

 more robust and hardy, and consequently they bear more freely, 

 and difficult as it may be to obtain good ones, they must still be 

 grown. It is the right way to obtain new varieties of excellence. 

 The attempt is always interesting, and a philosopher has said that 

 " he who provides a new fruit renders a greater service to mankind 

 than he who wins a great battle." It does require great patience and 

 perseverance, and unselfish fortitude too, for it is not every one who 

 could bear with trustful equanimity to be told that the Seedlings he 

 has grown himself, and watched and petted for years, are worthless 

 as varieties, and good only as stocks for grafting. 



