178 ON PRODUCING NEW AND E/VRLY FRUITS. 



parent, and these regulate the bulk of the lobes and plantule : and I 

 have observed, in raising new varieties of the peach, that when one stone 

 contained two seeds, the plants these afforded were inferior to others. 

 The largest seeds, obtained from the finest fruit, and from that which 

 ripens most perfectly and most early, should always be selected. It 

 is scarcely necessary to inform the experienced gardener, that it will 

 be necessary to extract the stamina of the blossoms from which he 

 proposes to propagate, some days before the farina begins to shed, 

 when he proposes to generate new varieties in the manner I have 

 recommended. 



When young trees have sprung from the seed, a certain period must 

 elapse before they become capable of bearing fruit, and this period, I 

 believe, cannot be shortened by any means. Pruning and transplanting 

 are both injurious ; and no change in the character or merits of the 

 future fruit can be effected, during this period, either by manure or 

 culture. The young plants should be suffered to extend their branches 

 in every direction, in which they do not injuriously interfere with each 

 other ; and the soil should just be sufficiently rich to promote a moderate 

 degree of growth, without stimulating the plant to preternatural exertion, 

 which always induces disease*. The periods which different kinds of fruit- 

 trees require to attain the age of puberty, are very varied. The pear 

 requires from twelve to eighteen years ; the apple, from five to twelve, or 

 thirteen ; the plum and cherry, four or five years ; the vine three or 

 four ; and the raspberry, two years. The strawberry, if its seeds be 

 sown early, affords an abundant crop in the succeeding year. My 

 garden at present contains several new and excellent varieties of 

 this fruitf, some of which I shall be happy to send to the Horticultural 

 Society. 



* The soil of an old garden is peculiarly destructive. 



t The hautboy strawberry does not appear to propagate readily with the other varieties, and 

 may possibly belong to an originally distinct species. I have, however, obtained several 

 offspring from its farina ; but they have all produced a feeble and abortive blossom. If nature, 

 in any instance, permits the existence of vegetable mules (but this I am not inclined to believe), 

 these plants seem to be beings of that kind. 



