1.4 MANAGEMENT 



Autumn, after the fall of the leaf. If natural fruit 

 be the object of the cultivator, attention should be paid 

 to the selection of seedling plants which have leaves 

 large and thick, for such are most likely to produce 

 a good variety of fruit. Where a species has been 

 ameliorated by cultivation (says Professor Davy) the 

 seeds it affords, other circumstances being similar, 

 produce more perfect and vigorous plants ; and in this 

 way, the great improvements in the production of our 

 fruits seem to have been effected." The same observ- 

 ing writer also remarks " that the seeds of plants ex- 

 alted by cultivation, always furnish large and im- 

 proved varieties, but the flavour, and even the colour 

 of fruit, seems to be a matter of accident : thus a hun- 

 dred seeds of the Golden Pippin, will always pro- 

 duce fine large leaved apple trees, bearing fruit of a 

 considerable size; but the taste and colour of the ap- 

 ples from each will be different, and none will be the 

 same in kind as those of the pippin itself : some will 

 be sweet, some sour, some bitter, some mawkish, 

 some aroniatick ; some yellow, some green, some red, 

 and some streaked; all the apples however, will be 

 much more perfect than those from the seeds of the 

 crab, which produce trees all of the same kind, and 

 all bearing sour and diminutive fruit." 



When removed into the nursery, they should be 

 planted in rows four feet asunder, and about twelve 



