OF FRUIT TREES. 17 



rarely produce the same species of fruit with that 

 from which the kernels were taken, yet they are 

 well adapted as stocks for grafting, and it occasion- 

 ally happens that a new and valuable variety is 

 thus produced, either for cider, or for the dessert. 

 An accurate observer, Mr. Joseph Cooper, of New 

 Jersey, asserts, (Dom. Ency. Mease's edit.) that ex- 



Eerience, for more than fifty years, has convinced 

 im, that, although seedlings from apples will scarce- 

 ly ever produce fruit exactly similar to the origi- 

 nal, yet many of them will produce excellent fruit : 

 some will even be superiour to the apples from 

 which the seeds are taken. This fact has led him 

 to plant seeds from the largest and best kinds of 

 fruit, and from trees of a strong and rapid growth, 

 and let all the young trees bear fruit before graft- 

 ing, which produce uncommon strong shoots or a 

 large rich-looking leaf. He has seldom known 

 them fail of bearing fruit having some good quality ; 

 at all events they make a stock to receive the 

 grafts of any good kind which may present itself. 



BEST ADAPTED SOIL. 



The apple tree will thrive and flourish in many 

 different sorts of soil ; but a dry friable loam should 

 probably be preferred, as too much moisture is 

 known to be injurious to the roots. Such soil as 

 produces good crops of corn or grass will, in general, 

 afford the requisite and best adapted nutriment to 

 apple or pear trees. The soil should not only be 

 rich, but have a good depth, not less perhaps than 

 two or three feet. It has been remarked as a fact, 

 that, in each particular place, certain kinds of apples 

 have been observed to succeed better than other 

 kinds ; and, according to the observations of the ho- 

 nourable Timothy Pickering, many different sorts 

 will flourish on an acre of ground, when the same 

 number of one sort would starve. When, there- 

 3 



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