26 CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT 



ing that variety from any of them. This is the dog- 

 ma which must be received as undoubtedly true. 

 From the time the kernel germinates for apple 

 quick, should the plant be disposed to form a valua- 

 ble variety, there will appear a regular progres- 

 sive change or improvement in the organization 

 of the leaves, until that variety has stood and 

 grown sufficient to blossom and come to full bear- 

 ing; that is, from the state of infancy to maturity ; 

 and it is this and other circumstances, by which the 

 inquisitive eye is enabled to form the selection, 

 among those appearing likely to become valuable 

 fruits. But from that time, the new variety, or se- 

 lect plant, being compared with all the engraftments 

 which may be taken from it, or any of them, these 

 shall show a most undeviating sameness among them- 

 selves. The different varieties of fruit are easily 

 distinguished from each other by many particulars ; 

 not only their general fertility, and the form, size, 

 shape, and flavour of the fruit, but also the manner 

 of the growth of the tree, the thickness and pro- 

 portion of the twigs, their shooting from the parent 

 stem, the form, colour, and consistence of the leaf, 

 and many other circumstances by which the varie- 

 ty can be identified; and were it possible to engraft 

 each variety upon the same stock, they would still 

 retain their discriminating qualities with the most 

 undeviating certainty. Further, if twenty different 

 varieties were placed together, so that each could 

 receive its nurture from the same stem, they would 

 gradually die off in actual succession, according to 

 the age or state of health of the respective variety 

 at the time the scions were placed in the stock; 

 and a discriminating eye, used to the business, would 

 nearly be able to foretell the order in which each 

 scion would actually decline. Should it also hap- 

 pen that two or three suckers, from the wilding 

 stock, had been permitted to grow among the twen- 

 ty grafts, such suckers, or wilding shoots, would 



