844 



ANNUxVL REGISTER, 1804. 



tion of Industry; and tlie {Tublic 

 mind, like that of an individual, 

 does not soon return even to a fa- 

 TOHrite subjedt, from which it has 

 been once diverted or driven. Be- 

 fore the calamities of the period al- 

 luded to, orcharding seems to have 

 been brought to a very considerable 

 degree of perfection ; and even the 

 ordinary means of preservation ap- 

 pear to have been ncgled^cd after. 

 If these conje6tures should be ad- 

 mitted (and they are offered merely 

 as such), they account for that de- 

 cay of the old and most valuable 

 fruits in Herefordshire, which is so 

 generally acknowledged and la- 

 mented. Their renovation, or the 

 introducHon of others equally good, 

 cannot be too strongly urged, and 

 the public spirit of the present age 

 Las not been indifferent on the oc- 

 casion; more endeavours have per- 

 haps been directed toM'ards this ob- 

 jedt within the last twenty years, 

 than during a century preceding. 

 Grafting, as most expeditious, has 

 been most frequently attempted; 

 but it is presumed that no mode of 

 grafting, hitherto pra(?tised, has 

 been found adequate to the pur- 

 pose. The shoots being unavoid- 

 ably taken from old trees, tiourish 

 a few years from the vigour of the 

 crab-stock, then canker and re- 

 lapse into all the inlirmitics of the 

 parent tree. On this principle, the 

 renovation of the old j'ruit appears 

 impracticable: by the general laws 

 of nature, each animated being lives 

 to propagate its species, and after a 

 time resigns its place to a successor. 

 The opinion of the best informed 



planters is, that the seeds of the old 

 fruits should be sown, and the most 

 strong and healthy plants selected 

 for cultivation and a supply of 

 grafts. This experiment has been 

 adopted, on a large scale, by seve- 

 ral planters, has hitherto pronsised i 

 the fullest success, and has further 

 the sanrlion of that period in which ' 

 orchardiiig received particular at- 

 tention.* A treatise on this sub- 

 ject was published by William Law- 

 son, a north. country man, in the 

 year 1 G26, and he states, that " the 

 best way to plant an orchard is to 

 turn the ground with a spade in Fe- 

 bruary, and to set, from February 

 to May, some kernels of the best 

 and soundest apples and pears, fin- 

 ger-deep, and at a foot distance, 

 and to leave the likeliest plants only 

 in tlie natural place, removing the 

 others as time and occasion shall re- 

 quire." Lord Scudamorealso fully 

 understood the nature and value of 

 this practice: after the assassination 

 of his friend the duke of Bucking- 

 ham, in the year 1628, he retired to 

 IIom-Lacy, and amidst other useful 

 and honourable employments of a 

 country life, he paid great attention 

 to the culture of fruit-trees, and 

 particularly to that of the red-streak, 

 V, hich he seems to have introduced 

 into general notice and esteem. As 

 late also as the year IG54, a trea- 

 tise, called " The Countryman's 

 Recreation, or the Art of Plantinff, 

 Graffmg, <i:c." remarks, " that al- 

 though the pepins be sown of the 

 })Omes of peares and good apples, 

 }-et we shall hud that some of them 

 do love the tree whereof they came, 



* One of the annual premiums given hj' the i^gricullura,' Society of this county 

 if, " for the host new variety of the npple raided from seed;" and several ncjv va- 

 rieties of excellent qualities have already been thus produced. 



and 



