8 



tations, and where no traces of ' mail's device ' could 

 be discernible in their vicinity, or the ameliorating ef- 

 fects upon the tree itself, by engrafting or inoculation. 

 In some cases we have positive evidence, derived from 

 the personal observation of the proprietor, that the 

 tree originated in the place it now occupies, and has 

 never been subjected to the operation of artificial 

 change. The process of raising ameliorated fruits of 

 this description is very slow, if we wait the develop- 

 ment of the product in the maturity of the original 

 tree. The first generation of fruit may aflford the de- 

 sired degree of amelioration, although the balance of 

 probabilities may be against the fulfilment of that ex- 

 pectation. A more summary mode of producing the 

 desired result is to transfer a shoot or a bud from a 

 young plant to a* thrifty mature tree, and to plant 

 the seed of the fruit that it may produce, and thus 

 proceed in the multiplication of chances by alternate 

 planting and engrafting from the fruit and plant pro- 

 duced, until the required quality is obtained. This, 

 according to the theory of an ingenious modern 

 writer, may be effected in the fifth or sixth genera- 

 tion. The experiment, though it may require much 

 time and labor, and demand no inconsiderable share 

 of patience, is worthy the attention of those, whose 

 views are not confined to the narrow precincts of a 

 selfish and exclusive pohcy, but are disposed to imi- 



* It has been suggested to me by a distinguished Horticulturist, 

 that this experiment would probably succeed better, if the shoot or bud 

 were placed upon an old tree, or one of slow growth, as it would thus 

 earlier develope the fruit. 



