#99] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
seed. This defect may, I think, be 
the immediate cause of the canker 
and moss, though it is probably it- 
self the effect of old age, and there- 
fore incurable. 
Being at length convinced that 
all efforts, to make grafts from old 
and worn out trees grow, were in- 
effectual, I thought it probable that 
those taken from very young trees, 
raised from seed, could not be made 
to bear fruit. The event here an- 
swered my expectation. Cuttings 
from seedling apple-trees of two 
years old were inserted on stocks of 
twenty, and in a_ bearing state, 
These have now been grafted nine 
years, and though they have been 
frequently transplanted to check 
their growth, they have not yet pros 
duced a single blossom. I have 
since grafted some very old trees 
with cuttings from seedling apples 
trees of five years old: their growth 
has been extremely rapid, and there 
appears no probability that their 
time of producing fruit will be ac- 
celerated, or that their health will 
be injured, by the great age of the 
stocks. A seedling apple tree usu- 
ally bears fruit in thirteen or four- 
teen years; and I therefore con- 
clude, that I have to waitfor a blos- 
som till the trees, from which the 
grafts were taken, attain that age, 
though I have reason to believe, 
from the form of their buds, that 
they will be extremely prolific. 
Every cutting, therefore, taken from 
the apple (and probably from every 
other) tree, will be affected by the 
state of the parent stock. If that 
be too young to produce fruitit will 
grow with vigour but will not bl+s- 
som, and if it be too old it will im- 
mediately produce fruit, but will 
never make a healthy tree, and 
consequently never answer the ins 
teution of the planter. The root, 
however, aad the part of the stock 
adjoining it, are greatly more dura- 
ble than the bearing branches ; and 
I have no doubt but that scions ob- 
tained from either would grow with 
vigour, when those taken from the 
bearing branches would not. The 
following experiment will, at least, 
evince the probability of this in the | 
pear-tree. I took cuttings from the © 
extremities of the hearing branches © 
of some old ungrafted pear-trees, — 
and others from scions which sprang 
out of the trunks near the ground, 
and inserted some of eachon thesame 
stocks. The former grew without — 
thorns, asin the cultivated varieties, 
and produced blossoms the second 
year; whilst the latter assumed the 
appearance of stocks just raised 
from seeds, were covered with 
thorns, and have not yet produced 
any blossoms. : 
Theextremities of those branches 
which produce seeds, in every tree, 
probably shew the first indication of 
deeay ; and we frequently see (par- 
ticularly in the oak) young branches 
produced from the trunk, when the 
ends of the old ones have long been 
dead. The same tree, when crope 
ped, will produce an almost eternal 
succession of branches, The dura- 
bility of the apple and pear, I have 
long suspected to be different in dif- 
ferent varieties, but that none of 
either would yegetate with vigour 
much, if at all, beyond the life of 
the parentstock, provided that died 
from mere old age. | am confirmed 
in this opinion by the books you did 
me the honour to send me; of the 
apples mentioned and described by 
Parkinson, the names only remain, 
and those since applied to other 
kinds now also worn out ; but many 
of Evelyn's are still well known, 
partie 
