644 



POMACE^E. X. PVRUS. 



per for a nursery. Some have preferred a very poor, and others 

 a very rich soil ; and both perhaps are almost equally wrong. 

 The advocates for the poor soil appear to me to have been mis- 

 led by transferring the feelings of animals to plants, and infer- 

 ring that a change from want to abundance must be agreeable 

 and beneficial to both. But plants in a very poor soil become 

 stunted and unhealthy, and do not readily acquire habits of 

 vigorous growth when removed from it. In a soil which has 

 been highly manured the growth of young apple trees is ex- 

 tremely rapid, and their appearance, during 2 or 3 years, gene- 

 rally indicates the utmost exuberance of health and vigour. 

 These are, however, usually the forerunners of disease, and the 

 ' canker's desolating tooth' blasts the hopes of the planter. In 

 choosing the situation for a nursery, too much shelter or expo- 

 sure should be equally avoided, and a soil nearly similar to that 

 in which the trees are afterwards to grow should be selected 

 where it can be obtained. Pasture ground or unmanured mea- 

 dow should be preferred to old tillage, and a loam of moderate 

 strength, and of considerable depth, to all other soils." (Treat, 

 on Appl. and Pear.) 



Grafting. -The first business is to select the scions. At 

 whatever season scions are to be inserted, Mr. Knight observes, 

 " the branches which are to form them should be taken from the 

 parent stock during the winter, and not later than the end of 

 the preceding year ; for if the buds have begun to vegetate in 

 the smallest degree, and they begin with the increasing influence 

 of the sun, the vigour of the shoots, during the first season, will 

 be diminished, and the grafts will not succeed with equal cer- 

 tainty ; though a graft of the apple tree very rarely fails, unless 

 by accidental injury or great want of skill in the operator. 

 The amputated branches must be kept alive till wanted, by 

 having the end of each planted in the ground a few inches deep 

 in a shady situation." Stocks destined to form standard trees 

 may either be grafted at the usual height at which the lateral 

 branches are allowed to diverge, which is commonly six feet, or 

 they may be grafted near the ground, and a single shoot trained 

 from the grafts, so as to form the stem of the tree. The pro- 

 priety of grafting near the ground or at the height of six or seven 

 feet, will depend on the kind of fruit to be propagated, whether 

 it he quite new, and just beginning to bear, or a middle-aged 

 variety. In new and luxuriant varieties, and these only should 

 be propagated, it will be advantageous to graft when the stocks 

 are three years old, as the growth of such will be more rapid, 

 smooth, and upright than that of the crab, and there will be 

 no danger of their being injured by beginning to bear too early. 

 " Middle-aged varieties will be most successfully propagated by 

 planting stocks of six or seven feet high, and letting them re- 

 main ungrafted till they become firmly rooted in the places in 

 which the trees are to stand. One graft only should be inserted 

 in each stock ; for when more are used they are apt to divide 

 when loaded with fruit, and to cleave the stock, having no 

 natural bond or connexion with each other. When the stocks 

 are too large for a single scion, I would recommend that the 

 grafts be inserted in the branches, and not in the principal stem." 

 This practice is not uncommon in various parts of England, and 

 in general use in Germany with free stocks, where, however, they 

 often neglect to graft the trees, and thus, as Mr. Neill observes, 

 produce an endless variety of sorts, some good, but most of 

 them little better than crabs. Stocks intended to form halfstand- 

 ards are grafted at three or four feet from the ground, and 

 those for dwarfs at eight or ten inches or lower. Miller and 

 Knight agree in recommending to graft near the ground, where 

 lasting and vigorous trees are wanted ; but the practice of the 

 continental gardeners, and the opinions of some in this country, 

 are in favour of leaving a stem below the graft of not less than a 

 foot in length. A kind of grafting generally adopted for mo- 



derate sized stocks is the whip or tongue method, or the new 

 mode of saddle-grafting adopted by Mr. Knight ; and the gene- 

 ral time for the apple is in the end of February and the greater 

 part of March. Much depends on the season and situation ; the 

 guiding principle is to make choice of the time when the sap 

 of the stock is in full motion, while that of the scions, from 

 having been previously cut off and placed in the shade, is less 

 so. The common season for budding the apple is July, and 

 there is nothing peculiar to this tree in performing that opera- 

 tion. 



Transplanting grafted trees in the nursery. " It has been 

 recommended," Knight observes, " to remove grafted trees 

 once or twice during the time they remain in the nursery, under 

 the idea of increasing the number of their roots, but I think this 

 practice only eligible with trees which do not readily grow when 

 transplanted. I have always found the growth of young apple 

 trees to be much retarded, and a premature disposition to blos- 

 som to be brought on by it ; and I could not afterwards observe 

 those trees which had been twice removed grow better than 

 others. It has also been supposed that many small roots, pro- 

 ceeding immediately from the trunk, are in the future growth 

 of the tree to be preferred to a few which are large ; but as the 

 large roots of necessity branch into small, which consequently 

 extend to a greater distance, the advantages of more transplan- 

 tations than from the seed-bed to the nursery, and thence to the 

 garden or orchard, may reasonably be questioned." 



The choice of sorts depends upon the object in view. The 

 first thing an inexperienced gardener has to do is to consider the 

 various uses of the apple, and then determine what is wanted, 

 according to family, market, or other purpose to be supplied ; 

 the next thing is to consider how those wants are to be supplied 

 in his given soil, situation, and circumstances ; and the last thing 

 is to study the catalogue of sorts, and to select accordingly. 

 Another source of choice is, as may respect the soil, situation, and 

 climate of the garden or orchard, in which they are to be planted, 

 or the character, whether of dwarfs, espaliers, or wall-trees, which 

 they are to assume there. The winter and spring table apples may 

 require a south wall in one district, while in another they may 

 attain equal maturity as standards or espaliers. Where there is 

 ample room a selection of large sorts, as the Alexander and Bal- 

 timore apples, or of such as are the most beautifully coloured, as 

 the violet, carnation, &-c. may be made to gratify the eye ; or 

 where room is wanting, useful sorts and great bearers are to be 

 preferred, as the golden and ribston pippin, summer pcarmain, 

 codlins, grey russet, summer and winter Calvilles, &c. In general 

 small sized fruit, as the Harveys and Granges, are to be pre- 

 ferred for standards, as less likely to break down the branches 

 of the trees, or be shaken down by winds, middling sorts for 

 walls and dwarfs, and the largest of all for espaliers. In respect 

 to a soil liable to produce canker, sorts raised from cuttings 

 may be desirable, as the Burknott and codling tribe ; and where 

 an occupier of a garden has only a short interest therein, such as 

 come into immediate bearing, as the Burknotts and others from 

 cuttings, and the Hawthorndean, Apius's apple, and other short- 

 lived dwarf sorts on Paradise or creeping stocks, may deserve 

 the preference. On the contrary, where a plantation is made 

 on freehold property, or with a view to posterity, new varieties 

 on crab or free stocks should always be chosen, as the Grange^ 

 Ingestrie, Harvey, &c. Some excellent sorts will grow and 

 produce crops every where, as the Hawthorndean, codling, and 

 Ribston pippin ; the latter of which, Nicol says, will grow at 

 John O'Groat's house, and may be planted in Cornwall ; others 

 are shy bearers in cold situations, as the Nemlown pippin of 

 America, &c. 



Choice of plants for planting. This depends in some degree 

 on the object in view, the richness of the soil, and the shelter. 



