842 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 



the pTjrus mains, or crab; and the 

 other derived from the pijru/> com- 

 mnrds, or common wild pear: as 

 such, neither of them are noticed by 

 Linnseus. 



The native wild crab is sabjeft to 

 considerable diversity in the appear- 

 ance of its leaves, and in the co- 

 lour, shape, and flavour of its fruit : 

 liy selecting and cultivating the fair- 

 est and the best of these, all our 

 valuable varitties have been pro- 

 duced ; and by repeated propaga- 

 tion, have been preserved for a time. 

 This principle was dearly known to 

 the ancients, whether they applied 

 it to the apple or not: — 



" Quare apte 6 proprios gencratlm dis- 



cite cultus, 

 '• Aiirir,ola3, tVuctusque feres mollite ca- 

 piendo."* 



Normandy, and other parts of the 

 continent, have occasionally fur- 

 nished this country with several of 

 these artificial varieties. 



It does not appear that orchard- 

 ing became a considerable branch of 

 rural a'conomyin England before the 

 reigu of Henry Vlll. when, by the 

 industry of a person of the name of 

 Harris.) who was fruiterer to that 

 king, the fields and environs of 

 about thirty towns in Kent only, 

 tvere planted with fruit-trees. This 

 example probably induced orchard- 

 ing in Ilereforilsliire and other coun- 

 ties on a much larger scale, than had 

 been practised before; but the pe- 

 riod in which the plantations in 

 Herefordshire acquired the peculiar 

 eminence they still retain, seems to 

 ■ have been the reign of Charles I. 

 whtin, by the noble exertions of 

 Ford Scudaniorc, of Ilom-Lacy, 

 ^ud othcj" spirited gentlemen, Here- 



fordshire had become " in a man* 

 ner, one entire orchard." 



Plantations are found in every as- 

 pect; and on soil of every quality, 

 and under every culture; the most 

 approved site is that which is open 

 to the south-east, and sheltered in 

 other points, but particularly in the J 

 opposite direction. For although 1 

 Virgil and the other Roman poets 

 celebrate the west wind as the most 

 genial in Italy ; and Philips, in his 

 poem on Cyder, recommends the 

 same aspect, it is an unquestionable 

 fact, that the westerly Avinds, and 

 therefore a westerly exposure, are 

 particularly unfavourable to the 

 fruit-trees of Herefordshire ; they 

 arc more cold, as blowing over a 

 considerable trafl; of the Welsh 

 mountains, which are often covered 

 with snow, even late in the spring; 

 and they arc more unkind, because 

 from that point proceeds a much 

 more than equal proportion of those 

 fogs and blue mists, which Dr. Bealo 

 called " the disgusts of the Black 

 Mountain." This leads to what is 

 commonly termed blight; the theory 

 of which appears to be imperfectly 

 understood. The general idea, that 

 insects, or their eggs, are brought 

 on the trees by the winds, is very 

 erroneous. It is the opinion of , 

 an able naturalist (T. A. Knight, ■ 

 esq.) that they are deposited by the 

 parent insect, in the winged state,,, 

 partly in the spring, and partly in 

 the preceding summer, on those trees 

 w here they afterwards commit their 

 depredations. Others suppose, that 

 the appearance of insc6ts on plants 

 and trees, is the efiect, not the cause 

 of blight ; and that this malady is 

 occasioned by sudden changes in the 

 atmosphere, from heat to cold, by 



• Viig'l, Geo;-^. lib. ii. 



TjhicU 



