USEFUL PROJECTS. 



843 



which the tender organs of Tegeta- 

 tion are injured, the rising sap 

 checked and inspissated, and both a 

 nidus and food created for various 

 kinds of insects. 



Of v,-hat are termed blights, the 

 honey-dew is ejected by the aphis ; 

 the mildew is a species of mucor ; 

 and there is sometimes found on the 

 apple-tree another species, if not 

 more, of the same genus, differing 

 from the mildew in colour, being of 

 a dark brown, and perhaps one sort 

 of the Tuhigo of Virgil (Georg. 

 lib. i.), to avert which, the Romans 

 celebrated " Rubigalia festa," in 

 the kalends of May. 



No effectual means, however, hare 

 yet been discovered to prevent their 

 bad effedts. 



The soil best adapted to most 

 kinds of apples, is a deep and rich 

 loam, when under the culture of the 

 plough ; on this the trees grow with 

 the greatest luxuriance, and pro- 

 duce the richest fruit. Some trees, 

 however (the stire and golden pip- 

 pin in particular), ferm exceptions 

 to this general rule, and flourish 

 most in a hot and shallow soil, upon 

 a lime or sand stone. The best 

 sorts of pear-trees also prefer the 

 rich loam, but inferior kinds will 

 even flourish where the soil will 

 scarcely produce herbage. 



The apple-trees are divided into 

 old and neio sorts ; each class com- 

 prises some called kernel-fruits (viz. 

 the fruit growing on its own native 

 roots), as a distinftion from those 

 produc'd by the operation of graft- 

 ing. The old sorts are the more va- 

 luable, and are those which have 

 been long introduced, as the stire, 

 golden pippin, hasiluc crab, seve- 

 ral varieties of the harvey, the 

 braiuly apple, redstrcak, woodcock, 

 laoyle; gcnuct-moyle, red, while, 



and yellow musks, pauson, fox- 

 whelp, loan and old pearmains, dy- 

 mock-red, ten commandments, an(l 

 others. The modern varieties de- 

 rive their appellations from such ca^ 

 pricious and various causes, that a 

 correal list cannot be composed: iu 

 some instances the same fruit bears 

 a difflerent name, even in the same 

 parish. A regular and scientific 

 classification of the whole would be 

 a valuable acquisition to our rural 

 oeconomics; and there are at this 

 time persons of opulence and pub., 

 lie spirit, fully adequate to such aq 

 undertaking. 



The pears held most in estimation 

 are the squashy so called from the 

 tenderness of its pulp; the old- 

 field, from having grown as a seed-, 

 ling iu a field of that name; the 

 huffcap, from the quantity of fixed 

 air contained in its liquor ; the 

 bar-land, from a field in the parisl^ 

 of Bosbury, called the Bare-faads; 

 the sack pear, from its richness ; 

 and the red pear, from its colour. 

 Of inferior sorts, the long-land is 

 most valuable, and for the general 

 use of the farmer, perhaps the 

 best. 



It has been the fate of most im- 

 provements in nature, or in art, to 

 have been patronised at one time, 

 and neglected at another, from cir- 

 cumstances wholly uriconne6led with 

 their intrinsic merits. Thus or- 

 ch(trdini>- (if the expression be al- 

 lowable), from the time of Henry 

 VIII. to that of Charles I. appears 

 to have engaged great attention: 

 many treatises were published on tho 

 subjedt, and the pr:i(^ice was pro- 

 portionably exte^nded and improved. 

 The civil dissentions which closed 

 the unfortunate reign of Charles, 

 could not fail to cramp the efl'orts of 

 gt.'nius, ami to suspend the opcra- 



tioa 



