OP FRUIT TREES. \ 



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more expanded its blossoms, the more it is likely to 

 produce a good variety of fruit. Short-leaved trees 

 should never be selected, for these approach near- 

 er to the original standard ; whereas the other 

 qualities indicate the influence of cultivation. Eve- 

 ry fruit tree must attain to a certain age before it 

 can bear fruit. An apple tree from the seed re- 

 quires to be twelve or fifteen years old before it 

 will produce fruit in perfection ; but a method will 

 be hereafter described by "which particular bran- 

 ches may be forced to produce blossoms and fruit at 

 an earlier period, and their quality sooner ascer- 

 tained. 



The following are the sentiments of Mr. Knight, 

 an experienced English horticulturalist, (Edin. Ency. 

 Amer. edit, article horticulture.) All the exten- 

 sions, he observes, by means of grafts and buds, 

 must naturally partake of the qualities of the origi- 

 nal. Where the original is old, there must be in- 

 herent in the derivatives the tendency to decay in- 

 cident to old age. It is not to be understood, how- 

 ever, that a graft cannot survive the trunk from 

 which it was taken : this would be deemed absurd. 

 It may indeed be assumed as a fact, that a variety 

 or kind of fruit , such as the golden pippin or the 

 ribston, is equivalent only to an individual By 

 careful management the health and life of this in- 

 dividual may be prolonged; and grafts placed on 

 vigorous stocks and nursed in favourable situations, 

 may long survive the parent plant or original un- 

 grafted tree. Still there is a progress to extinction, 

 and the only renewal of an individual, the only true 

 reproduction, is by seed. As the production of 

 new varieties of fruit from the seed, is a subject 

 which now very much occupies the attention of 

 horticulturalists, it may be proper here to state the 

 precautions adopted by Mr. Knight and others in 

 conducting their trials. It is in the first place a 

 rule to take the seeds of the finest kinds of fruit, 



