330 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



May 12, 182S. 



iiig the. bud, and remaining- iiiiurafted] I woulJ re- and the foxwhelp are hastening rapidly after 

 commend tiiat its branches lie taken ofl" every them." — '• The diseased state of young grafted 

 third or fourth year, and used for graits ; and tliat trees of tlie golden pippin, and the debasement of 

 it never be suft'ered to fulti! the nitentions of fruit, afford one among a thousand instances wiiich 

 nature, by producing either fruit or blossoms :— ' nught be a/lduced, of the decay of tiiose varieties 

 under this mode of treatment I have little doubt of fruit which have been long propagated by grall- 

 but that the same variety might ho propagated ing." 

 through many centuries." The above three quotations are assertions of 



" [t appears also probable that the latter period fads : does the E. R.-writer mean to call in ques- 

 of the existence of the apple-tree would be con- . tion Mr Knight's veracity ? — I presume not. Are 

 siderablv prolonged in a southern climate ; for all : not the assertions perfectly intelligible ? — Why 

 the old kinds grow best in warm situations ; and ' then does the writer resort to coiniueiitators to 

 the most diseased flourished with the greatest vigor, ! show tiieir meaning ? Mr Knight is not responsi- 



when I trained them to a south wall.* Tkis mode ; ble for their mistaken or absurd interpretations 



of culture will not suit the cider-maker ; but it may j Dr Thacher has endeavoured to render a public 

 probably be adopted with m'i,-.h advantage, when serx'ice by co?)y/t7u(g' a treatise on orchard fruits; 

 new varieties are to be obtained from seed ; and I without making any pretensions to much practical; 

 the production of these must be the first thing to , knowledge of the subject. Of his great mistake ' 

 engage the attention of the planter of the present | respecting Mr Knight's theory, I informed liim, 

 day." I when he was preparing the second edition of his 



Mr Kniofht then proceeds to give directions, ! " Orchardist."'- This theory, indeed. Dr. Thacher 

 manifestly judicious (as might be expected from , ascribes to Mr Eucknal ;t and cites the Domestic 

 so skilful and experienced a planter) to adapt the , Encyclopedia, edited by Dr Mease, in Philadelphih, 

 va rieries of apples to the various soils and situa- j as the source of his information ; and it is if 

 tions in which they may be planted ; by observing Bucknal's observations on the doctrine in questioji, 

 which, he suppo-es line ciders might be made in of which Dr Thacher professes to give an " a8- 

 almost every part of England. — He says " the stract," commencing at page 23 of iiis Orchardist. 

 most common detect in the orchards of Hereford- '. It is not Mr Knight's statement of his own theort; 

 ehire, and the adjoining counties, is the want of a and of course he is not responsible for any errout^- 

 sutticient degree of warmth to bring their fruits to ■ ous notions or absurdities wliich the abstract ex) 

 a perfect state of maturity ; for almost all these, hibits. Such, for instance, as this — that if an/ 

 havinc acquired their fame in veiy v.arrn and fa- j single variety of apple be multiplied in millions ijf 

 vourable situations, have been tiansferred from j trees, yet, on the death of the parent tree, inerei' 

 those to others, in which, except in very warm i from old age, each individual will decline, in whd- 

 summers, they are never properlj ripened. The ' ever country they may be, or however endowed u-ih 

 liquor produced from them is coilsequently harsh j2/<"'"i ajirf /!e«/<ft. And Dr Thacher's iilustratit^i 

 and unpalateable." 1 of this doctrine (p. 27, 28) is alike uiiforhinate.-|- 



I believe I have now introducei all tliat is ne- He says, — " Let it be supposed tliat the UaldwiL 



cessary to make Mr Knight's the(|ry miderstood ; ( ajiple is a new variety produced from the seed L 



and that every judicious reader, wjo will compare , This, as the original slock, may continue to livl^ 

 his facts and reasonings with the oDJections of the j one hundred years. A scion taken from it when 

 Essev Rpgieter- writer, v.'ill find ths latter all ob- j ten years old, may live ninety years ; another, tak- 

 viated. | en ten years after, may enjoy a duration of eij^hly 



That writer, in his second pubScation (transfer- j years ; and so on progressively. At the expiraiion 

 red to your paper No. 37) says, — "before we pro-; of one hundred years, the original stock and all 

 ceed to overthrow Air Knight's hypothesiw, we ' derivatives from it, will become extinct." — Now 

 must first show what thi hyi)othe3is is." — That ' trees, like men and other animals, may, froai va- 

 wri'er tisen introduces tie following passages, as rious causes, live to ditferent ages before tliey be- 

 t;u(.>tntions from Mr Kniylit's publications. — "Tliose come decrejiit, and die ; although none live for 

 a|);)les which have bee.l long cultivated are on the ever. 



decay. The redstreat and the golden pippin can i The Essex Reijister-writer sci'/es on these pal- 

 no longer be propagated with advantage. The pable errors of the ci/mHic7!/<r<o/«, to throw ridicule 

 fruit, like the parent tree, is aftected by the old age on Mr Knigiit's Dieory. But, in his imagini<ry tri- 

 of the variety." — " Tlie moil and its successful umph, falls into an error as gross as any he altem|)ts 

 rival the redstrealt, with the musts and golden pip- to expose. Referring to Dr. Thacher's illustration, 

 pin, are in the last stivges of decay, and the styre , the writer says — " It is precisely the same a.s to 



say, of a family consisting of a grandmother, child- 

 ren, grand children, and great grand children, that 

 all tlieir lives depend upon that of the grand moth- 

 er ; and that when her term of life was completed. 



['"trained against a suuth w^ll." As f(Mv farm- I 

 tri in Amfrica liave had opportunities to sie this pro- j 

 cess, I. will briflly describe it. 



In nr ier to obtain fruits of certain delicate and fen- ; 

 dcr kind.s, which will not thrive in open fields or ^ar- 1 

 dens, hrick walls are erected, ten or twelve feet liij-h ; | 

 and, for Irnits requiring the moil shelter and wajnitli, 

 lacing the south. At the foot of this wall, and at about I 

 ?ix inche? from it, the young tree is planted. Its >tein, 

 whpn nt'a con lenient length, is secured to the wall by 

 ;>assjn!; a shred of cloth over it, asa loop, bringing the I 

 livo ends together, anil nailing them to the joints of! 

 the w;ill. The branches s;, ingiug from ihe sides of 

 the Uee, are in like manner lasteiieil to the wail, tier 

 iiliove tier, trained sir. ping or liorizontally f!:U to tlie 

 w.tII, nntil it is coverir] to its top; and extending on 

 each "ide to the di'lanco of eight to twelve feel ; ac- 

 cor<ling to the nature of the tree. Such branches as 

 spring !ro:n the parts of the tree not convenient to be 

 TO IraiiicJ, or which are hot wai.tvd, arc cut away.] 



* At the same time 1 desired him to correct seveial 

 errors, in ascribing to me certain opinions which I had 

 never expressed nor entertained. These are in pages 

 IG, 17, 21, 45, of his first edition, where my name is 

 introduced. He answered me, Ihat he wou d make 

 the cuir-ctiun. 



t Thomas S. D. Bucknal, member of Parliament, 

 wrote, about thirty years ago, a patnnhlet called the' 

 Orchardist; for which he obtained, from the London I 

 Society of Arts, an honorary medal. \ copy comino' 

 to my hands. I committed it to Mr Hordley, \'ice I'res- I 

 ident of the I'hiladelphia Society of .Xgricnllure, who 

 was then pr<'|.iarirjg the second edition of his " Notes ' 

 on llushmdrv ;" int > which he introduced some brief' 

 sketches of .Mr liucknal's method of " close prunin 

 and medicaling fruit trees." 



all her progeny would die at the same time." iiat 

 there is no analogy in the two cases. Children 

 are not, like the engrafted limbs of trees, merely 

 eiteujioHS of the substance of the bones and llesii, 

 of tiieir parents ; but bear relation to them similar 

 to the seeds of an apple, or other fruit, to the tree 

 : producing them. These seeds are produced by a 

 sexual union in vegetation, as tlie young of ani- 

 mals are prodi'ced by a like luiiou of the male and 

 female, hi most fruits, as in the ajiple and pear, the 

 two sexes are component parts of the same flowers. 

 But ill some trees, as tire date, and in some plants, 

 us the hemp, the males are exclusively on one, and 

 die females on the other ; and unless they grow 

 near together, or intermix, tiiere will be no fruit 

 in one, nor seed in the other. The young of animals 

 and the seeds of fruit trees are new stucks, capable 

 of produci ig new progenies, generation after geu- 

 erutiou, to the end of time. And such is the Wis- 

 dom manife.-.ted in the Creation, that altliough 

 some plants are endow-ed with the power of prop- 

 agation by slips, cuttings or scions, — yet, as if to 

 ensure thei;- renewal, and in their pristine vigour, 

 tliey bear seeds also, capable of producing new 

 {stocks, as a new creation. If, ho.vever, in regard 

 ;to such as yield fruit to man, taie be i;ot taken to 

 obtain new and vigorous progenies from youibful 

 and vigorous trees, — degenerate and uniiealthy 

 kinds may be produced. This is exemplified in 

 the human race ; among whom peculiar debilities 

 and diseases of parents become the unfortunate in- 

 heritances of their cliildren. In like manner, Mr. 

 Knight having selected tlie seeds of apples of some 

 of the best kinds of tlie old fruits, with an inteii- 

 tiou to propagate now ones ; '• soon focnd that mu- 

 ni/ td' the young plants (particulaily those from the 

 Gulden Pippin,) worn nearly as much diseased as 

 the trees vvhicli produced them." He adds — "i'se^- 

 er^'l times raised three or four plants from seeds 

 tdken from one apple, and when this had be';ii 

 produced by a diseased tree. I have had not only 

 as many distinct varieties as there were seeds, but 

 some were inuc.H diseased, and others apparently 

 healthj ; tliouf.h the seeds were sown intiie same 

 soil, aitl the plants afterwards grew within two 

 feet of L'iich otlier in the nursery. Grafts inserted 

 from each, retained the iiafaits/of the tree I'roin 

 wliich ;liey were taken." 



On tii.-i passage of Mr Knight, in hi.s treatise on 

 'the apfle and pear, the Esses Hegister-v, riter re- 

 marks — •' Thus it seems, that whether we propa- 

 gate fiom grafts, or the seed of old and decaying 

 varictit!s, no new life is prodi.ced, but only the con^ 

 tinuation of the life of the old parent stock : and 

 then icry sagaciously adds: — " If tliis be true, all 

 our virieties of the apple and pear trees should 

 long since have become extinct." — Why so.^ if 

 tlie iidolence or carelessness of Man, had prevent- 

 ed his rai.-;ing new stocks from the seeds of young 

 4nd if«?//(7/ trees ; or if, in all generations, he pur- 

 posely waited till the trees had grown old and de- 

 crepit, before he attempted to raise new slocks 

 from their seeds (and this ab.surdity is implied in 

 the remark of the E. R.-writer :) Nature always 

 provident, would have supplied his deficiencies. — 

 Ripe fruit, from yoimg and vigorous trees drop- 

 ping on the ground and rotting, its seeds would 

 tliere have germinated, and jiroduced the desired 

 new and liealthy stocks. T. I'lCKEKlNG. 



[To be continued.] 



A Hog was raised by Mr Willard G rover of Fo.f- 

 boroiigh, tlie past season, and slaughtered at the 

 age of 18 m'tiis, weight 577 lbs. [Coinmumcatedj 



