34 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1872. 



ativel}' recent and modern. Take up any modern author, like Downing, 

 for instance, who professes to classify, describe and give the history of 

 all existing varieties that have been named and you shall search in vain 

 for any that can be traced back more than two or three generations of 

 men. One may read in the younger Pliny, who wrote about the begin- 

 ning of the Christian era, glowing eulogies of twenty-nine kinds of 

 apples then cultivated in Ital}-, together with his prediction that " the 

 best of them would immortalize their first grafters forever — such as took 

 their names from Manlius, Cestius Matus and Claudius." Where are 

 these immortal apples now V AVHiere have they been for eighteen cen- 

 turies last past ? If we look at, the facts we shall see that nothing is 

 more certain than that for some reason, varieties of the apple have been 

 as 3'et ouh^ temporaiil}' reproduced. Such is also the case with other 

 vegetable products — notably so with the potato — which are all except the 

 small grains propagated by some form of budding, as strawberries from 

 runners, potatoes from tubers, the lily from bulblets, onions from prolif- 

 erous bulbs, grapes from cuttings, etc. 



The doctrine of Mr. Knight stated in its narrow and literal form — 

 that grafted fruits cannot outlive the trees from which the grafts were 

 taken — is now universally admitted to be untenable. But as regards the 

 wider question, as to the permanence of vaiieties, the preponderance 

 of argument and evidence seems to be against it. 



'■'■ Naturam exjjelles furca, iamen usque recurret." 



The apple crop of the present year is eiicellent and abundant and will 

 doubtless have the effect to restore some of the lost confidence in apple 

 culture. If any one havmg an apple orchard has ever felt an inclination 

 to follow the bad advice of those who advised cutting down apple trees, 

 witnessing and enjoying the present crop, let him realize how bad such 

 advice really was, and forever abandon thought of such vandalism. 



Why is the apple crop of this year so alnmdant as compared with that 

 of most others of the past decade V Before attempting to suggest an 

 entire answer to this question let us first notice what has been often said 

 and is currently believed, that the Baldwin apple tree bears only in alter- 

 nate years, that is, the even years of our era. There is no doubt that this 

 is substantially true. The product of Baldwin apjjles in the even years, 

 does greatly exceed that of the odd years. A very large percentage of 

 apples grown in the Xew England States for the market are Baldwins, 

 and the alternation of this variety of fruit has been extensively noticed 

 and is well known. But the fact of more abundant crops alternating with 

 less abundant, is just as true of other varieties of grafted apples as it is 

 of the Baldwin. Grafting dwarfs a tree and causes it to produce more 

 fruit than it otiiervvise would produce, diverting its energies from growth 



