DURATION OF VARIETIES. 



of a variety is mainly owing to neglect, and to grafting on bad 

 stock. We allude to the fact repeatedly verified, that healthy 

 young shoots taken from the roots of an old variety in apparent 

 decline, produce trees which are vigorous and healthy. " The 

 decay," says he, " of the powers of life in the roots of seedling 

 trees is exceeding slow, comparatively with that in the branches. 

 Scions (or shoots) obtained from the roots of pear trees two hun- 

 dred years old, afford grafts which grow with great vigour, and 

 which are often covered with thorns like young seedling stocks; 

 whilst other grafts taken at the same time from the extremities 

 of the branches of such trees present a totally different charac- 

 ter, and a very slow and unhealthy growth. I do not conceive 

 that such shoots possess all the powers of a young seedling, 

 but they certainly possess no inconsiderable portion of such 

 powers." 



This is nothing more, in fact, than going back to the roots, the 

 portion of the tree least exhausted, for the renewal of the health 

 of a variety when the branches of the tree have been exhaust- 

 ed by overbearing, etc. It is a simple and easy mode of re- 

 newing the vigour of a sort fallen into decay, to take scions 

 from young root suckers for grafting anew. This can of course 

 only be done with trees that grow on their own roots or have 

 not been grafted. And we suggest it as worth the attention 

 of those interested in gardening to graft feeble sorts on pieces 

 of roots, with a view to establishing them finally on their own 

 roots; or to raise them from layers, a more simple mode of at- 

 taining the object. 



Mr. Knight's idea that old varieties first decay in the north, 

 while they yet remain comparatively good in warmer and more 

 southern districts, is by no means borne out by the existing facts 

 in America. On the contrary the decline here, as we have al- 

 ready stated, is almost entirely along the sea-board, and to the 

 southward. In the interior, and to the north, the same sorts 

 are universally fair and excellent, except in cases where a dis- 

 eased stock has been obtained from the sea-board, and has not 

 recovered its health by removal. The whole middle and west- 

 ern sections of the country abound, more or less, with the finest 

 pears, of sorts that are in a state of decline on Long Island, 

 in portions of New Jersey, or near Boston. But the influence of 

 the soil, so far as our own observations extend, is, after a certain 

 time, always the same. In this light soil the pear and the 

 apple soon become feeble, because the sustenance afforded by 

 it is, after a time, insufficient to keep the tree in a continual 

 healthy, bearing state. The moisture afforded by it is not great 

 enough to answer the demand made upon the leaves by our 

 hot summer sun. Unless this is remedied by skilful culture, 

 these fruits must, more speedily fail in health in such districts, 



