62 J^ature of the Varieties of Engrafted Fruit Trees. 



had been permitted to grow among the twenty grafts, such suckers or 

 wilding shoots will continue, and make a tree after all the rest are gone. 

 A further consequence would result from the experiment: among such 

 a number of varieties, each of the free growers would starve the deli- 

 cate, and drive them out of existence only so much the sooner. It must 

 be observed that this supposed stem is the foster-parent to the twenty 

 scions, and real parent to the suckers: and those the least conversant 

 with engrafted fruits know the advantage acquired from this circum- 

 stance. And here it is worth while remarking, that a Gascoyne, or 

 wild cherry, will grow to twice the size that ever an engrafted cherry 

 did. 



By an experiment we have had in hand for five years, it will appear 

 that the roots and stem of a large tree, after the first set of scions are 

 exhausted or worn out, may carry another set for many years; and we 

 suspect a third set, provided the engrafting is properly done, and the 

 engrafter chooses a new variety. Now the Ripston ])ippin, of York- 

 shire, is the favorite, as being a free grower and good bearer, with fine 

 fruit. This, however, may be certainly depended on, that when a new 

 apple is raised from seed, if a scion were placed in a retired situation, 

 and constantly cut down, as a stool in a copse-wood, and the apple 

 never suflTered to fulfil the intentions of nature in bearing fruit, 

 the practitioners of the following ages may procure scions from that 

 stool, to continue the variety much longer. Hence, though I have 

 written as much as is in my power against permanency, yet I have 

 taken some pains to assure the planters, that forecast, selection, prun- 

 ing, cleanliness and care, will make the orchards turn to more profit for 

 the rising generations, than what they have done for the last hundred 

 years. To place the nature of varieties in its true light, for the informa- 

 tion of the public, I must maintain that the difl['erent varieties of the 

 apple will, after a certain time, decline and actually die away, and each 

 variety, or all of the same stem or family, will lose their existence in 

 vegetation; and yet it is a known fact, and mentioned in the seventeenth 

 volume of the Transactions, that after the debility of age has actually 

 taken possession of any variety, it will yet thrive by being placed 

 against a southern wall, and treated as a wall fruit. Who, however, 

 can afford to raise cider at that expense, except as matter of curiosity, 

 to prove, that when the vital principle in vegetation is nearly exhausted, 

 a superior care and warmth will still keep the variety in existence 

 some time longer.'' 



It should be understood that the external air of Britain is rather too 

 cold for the delicate fruits; which is the reason why, in the Orchardist, 

 I lay such a stress on procuring warmth for the trees, by draining, 

 shelter and manure. It would be now lost time to attempt to recover 

 the old varieties as an article of profit. 



If I have not expressed myself, in ihis Essay on the Nature of Varie- 

 ties, with so much clearness and conviction as might have been expect- 

 ed, it should be considered, that it is an abstruse subject, very little un- 

 derstood, and requiring at first some degree of faith, observation and 

 perseverance. The prejudices of mankind revolt against it. They are 

 not disposed to allow the distinction of nature; and they imagine, that, 

 in the act of engrafting or multiplying, they give new life; whereas it is 

 only continuing the existence of the same tree, stick, or bud. Observe 

 what I said before : the seed of the apple, when placed in the earth, 

 germinates and unfolds itself into a new plant, which successively passes 

 through the stages of infancy, maturity, and decay, like its predecessors. 

 I might say, all created nature is similar in this respect; though, frona 

 the circumstance that varieties are nmch longer lived than man, the 

 plants have appeared to be possessed of eternal powers of duration: 



