708 APPENDIX. 



haps owing to their having very rarely been propagated bj 

 grafting.* 



We are not without remedy for varieties that have partially 

 decayed in a certain district. If the trees have once been pro- 

 ductive of excellent fruit, and are still in a sound condition, 

 though enfeebled, a thorough renewal of their powers will 

 again restore them to health. To effect this, the soil about the 

 roots should be replaced by new, enriched by manure or peat- 

 compost, and mixed with the mineral substances named in the 

 preceding page. The bark of the trunk and large branches 

 should be well scraped, and, as well as all the limbs, thoroughly 

 washed with soft soap. The head should be moderately pruned; 

 and finally, the tree should be suffered to bear no fruit for the 

 two following seasons. After this it will generally bear excel- 

 lent fruit for several years again. f 



In making plantations of fine old varieties, in districts where 

 the stock has become feeble, something may be gained by pro- 

 curing grafts or trees from more favourable localities, where the 

 fruit is still as fair as ever and care should be exercised in se- 

 lecting only the healthiest grafts or trees. Nurserymen in un- 

 favourable districts should endeavour to propagate only from 

 trees of healthy character ; and if those in their own vicinity 

 are diseased, they should spare no pains to bring into their 

 nurseries, and propagate only such as they feel confident are 

 healthy and sound. On them, next to the soil, depends very 

 considerably the vigour or debility of the stock of any given va- 

 riety in the country around them. 



In Mr. Knight's original essay on the decay of varieties, he 

 clearly stated a circumstance that most strongly proves what 

 we have here endeavoured to show viz. : that the local decline 

 of a variety is mainly owing to neglect, and to grafting on bad 



* We do not deny that in any given soil there is a period at which a 

 variety of tree or plant exhibits most vigour, and after having grown there 

 awhile it ceases to have its former luxuriance. The same is true of wheat 

 or potatoes, and accordingly farmers are in the habit of "changing their 

 seed." The nutriment for a given variety is after a time exhausted from 

 the soil, and unless it is again supplied the tree must decline. In light 

 soils this speedily happens. In strong, clayey or rocky soils, the natural 

 decomposition of which affords a continual store of lime, potash, &c., the 

 necessary supply of inorganic food is maintained, and the variety conti- 

 nues nealthy and productive. 



f It is not uncommon to hear it said that the Newto'wn pippin that 

 finest of all apples is degenerating rapidly. The solution of this is easy. 

 More than any other apple does this one need lime and high culture. In 

 proof, we may state that never have there been finer Newtown pippins 

 raised, or in so large quantities, as at the present moment on the Hudson 

 River. One gentleman's orchards supply hundreds, we may say thousands 

 of barrels to the London markets of the fairest, largest, and highest-fla- 

 voured fruit we have had the pleasure of seeing or tasting. If any one 

 will t'irn to page 62, he will speedily see why this var ety has not fallen 

 into d 3cay at Felhain farm. 



