570 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1795. 



flattered myself that I had succeeded; but my old enemies, the moss and 

 canker, in 3 years convinced me of my mistake. Some of them however trained 

 to a south wall, escaped all their diseases, and seemed, like invalids, to enjoy 

 the benefit of a better dimate- I had before frequently observed, that all the old 

 fruits suffered least in warm situations, where the soil was not unfavourable. I 

 tried the effects of laying one kind, but the canker destroyed it at the ground. 

 Indeed I had no hopes of success from this method, as I had observed that 

 several sorts which had always been propagated from cuttings, were as much 

 diseased as any others. The wood of all the old fruits has long appeared to 

 possess less elasticity and hardness, and to feel more soft and spongy under the 

 knife, than that of the new varieties which I have obtained from seed. This 

 defect may, I think, be the immediate cause of the canker and moss, though it 

 is probably itself the effect of old age, and therefore incurable. 



Being at length convinced that all efforts, to make grafts from old and worn- 

 out trees grow, were ineffectual, I thought it probable that those taken from 

 very young trees, raised from seed, could not be made to bear fruit. The event 

 here answered my expectation. Cuttings from seedling apple-trees of 2 years 

 old were inserted on stocks of 20, and in a bearing state. These have now been 

 grafted Q years, and though they have been frequently transplanted to check 

 their growth, they have r-^t yet produced a single blossom. I have since grafted 

 some very old trees with cuttings <rom seedling apple-trees of 5 years old; their 

 growth has been extremely rapid, and there appears no probability that their 

 time of producing fruit will be accelerated, or that their health will be injured, 

 by the great age of the stocks. A seedling apple-tree usually bears fruit in ] 3 

 or 14 years; and I therefore conclude, that I have to wait for a blossom till the 

 trees from which the grafts were taken attain that age, though I have reason to 

 believe, from the form of their buds, that they will be extremely prolific. 

 Every cutting therefore, taken from the apple, and probably from every other 

 tree, will be affected by the state of the parent stock. If that be too young to 

 produce fruit, it will grow with vigour, but will not blossom; aad if it be too 

 old, it will immediately produce fruit, but will never make a healthy tree, and 

 consequently never answer the intention of the planter. The root however, and 

 the part of the stock adjoining it, are greatly more durable than the bearing 

 branches; and I have no doubt but that scions obtained from either would grow 

 with vigour, when those taken from me bearing branches would not. The 

 following experiment will at least evince the probability of this in the pear-tree. 

 I took cuttings from the extremities of the bearing branches of some old un- 

 grafted pear-trees, and others from scions which sprang out of the trunks near 

 the ground, and inserted some of each on the same stocks. The former grew 

 without thorns, as in the cultivated varieties, and produced blossoms the 2d year; 



