86 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



roots. It may be separated from this trunk as a seed is, and 

 will continue to live if ingrafted upon another trunk, where it 

 will connect itself again with the ground and grow, and 

 through it other independent lives will be produced and sus 

 tained. Or it may be removed from its parent and placed 

 upon the ground, where it will make roots and extend and re 

 produce again as independently, in all respects, as a seed. It 

 is held that the death of trees does not arise from any natural 

 period being assigned to their existence, but that the tissues 

 of a tree, as they grow old, become dry and hard ; no longer 

 transmit sap, lose their vitality and gradually decay ; yet the 

 process of growth may continually be renewed exteriorly to 

 this death, so that large cavities will often exist in the inte 

 rior of trees. As, however, the peculiar natural food of the 

 tree within the limits to which it can extend its roots, becomes 

 exhausted, or, as other unhealthy circumstances affect it, its 

 vital power and its re- vitalizing power will be diminished, and 

 finally may become extinct. 



If, however, a bud or germ of a new branch can be taken 

 from the tree before its decay, or from any part of it that yet 

 retains its vigour and health, and be transplanted by means of 

 cuttings in the earth, or inoculations or grafts upon another 

 healthy stock of the same species, it will have all the vital 

 energy, and, in every respect, all the natural character, of a 

 seedling. 



In explanation of the general deterioration of certain favour 

 ite old varieties, according to the theory of Downing and 

 Lindley, their state should be compared (taking care not to 

 run the analogy too far into the ground) to what is popularly 

 understood as a scrofulous condition of human beings, rather 

 than to the decrepitude of old age. From various causes 

 want of proper food, unfavourable climate, propagation upon 

 unhealthy stocks, high feeding, and any unnatural stimulus 



