OF JHUlT TREES. 21 



rich soil. These were next year grafted with the 

 stire, golden pippin, or some other fine old kind. In 

 the course of the following winter the young trees 

 were dug up, and the roots being retrenched, they 

 were replanted in the same place. By this mode of 

 treatment they were thrown into bearing at two years 

 old. One or two apples were allowed to remain on 

 each tree : these consequently attained a large size, a 

 more perfect maturity. The seeds from these fruits, 

 Mr. K. then sowed, in the hope of procuring seedlings 

 possessed of good or of promising qualities ; and these 

 hopes have not been disappointed. In order to pro- 

 duce a hybrid variety, possessing perhaps a union of 

 the good properties of two kinds, Mr. K. had recourse 

 to the nice operation of dusting the pollen of one va- 

 riety upon the pistils of another. He opened the 

 unexpanded blossom, and cut away, with a pair of fine 

 pointed scissors, all the stamina, taking great care to 

 leave the styles and stigmata uninjured. The fruit 

 which resulted from this artificial impregnation were 

 the most promising of any, and the seeds of these he 

 did not fail to sow. Every seed, though taken from 

 the same individual fruit, furnishes a distinct variety. 

 These varieties, as might be anticipated, prove of very 

 different merits ; but to form a general opinion of 

 their value, it is not necessary to wait till they pro- 

 duce fruit : an estimate may be formed, even during 

 the first summer, by the resemblance the leaves bear 

 to those of the highly cultivated or approved trees, or 

 to those of the wild kinds. The more they approach 

 to the former, the better is the prospect. The leaves 

 of good kinds improve in character, becoming thicker, 

 rounder, and more downy every season. The plants 

 whose buds in the annual wood are full and prominent, 

 are usually more productive than those whose buds 

 are small and shrunk into the bark. But their future 

 character, as remarked by Mr,, K. must depend very 

 3 



