FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 49 



period, John Gardener directs the stocks for grafts of both 

 apples and pears to be planted in January, the apple on an 

 apple-stock, and the pear " a-pon a haw-thorne/' The 

 grafting, he says, should take place any time between Sep- 

 tember and April : 



" Wyth a saw thou schalt the tre kytte 

 And with a knyfe smowth make hytte 

 Klene a-tweyne the stok of the tre 

 Where-yn that they graffe schall be 

 Make thy Kyttyng' of thy graflfe 

 By-twyne the newe & the olde staffe." 



Clay had to be laid on the stock, " tokepethe rayneowte," and 

 moss bound over the clay with " a wyth of haseltree rynde." 

 Most of the early writers on gardening and husbandry devote a 

 large share of their treatises to grafting, and various experi- 

 ments to change the colour or flavour of the fruits were made. 

 Robert Salle is quoted as an authority on grafting in the 

 fifteenth century.^ He says : " Yf thou wilt make thyn apples 

 reede, take the gyaffe of an appel tree and gmffe hit on a stok 

 of elme or aldyr and hit shall ber' reede apples." " Make an 

 hole wt a wymbyll' in a tree and what colour thn wilt distempre 

 hit with wditer and put hit in at the hole and the fruit shal be 

 of the same colour."^ 



It was considered the most essential part of a husbandman's 

 education that he should be well skilled in grafting, as the 

 following lines, though of later date, so well describe : " It is 

 necessarye, profytable, and also a pleasure, to a housbande, to 

 have peares, wardens, and apples of dyuerse sortes. And also 

 cheryes, filberdes, bulleys, dampsons, plummes, walnuttes, and 

 suche other. And therefore it is convenyent to lerne howe 

 thou shalte graffe."^ 



Gardens of this date were usually square enclosures, bounded 

 either by walls of stone, brick, or daub, or by thick hedges. 

 There were generally two entrances to them ; one, a door 

 opening from the house, the other giving access from the 



^ Sloane MS., 122. 



2 The same recipes are also given in the Porkington Treatise printed 

 for the Warton Club, 1855, ed. by Halliwell. 



^ Book of Husbandry, by FitzHerbert, 1544, ed. Skeat, 1882. 



4 



