FRUITS. CHAP. 



apart, to give room to turn about amongst them j and at 

 two feet apart in the rows, if intended to be grafted or 

 budded without being again removed. If intended to be 

 again removed, before grafting or budding, they may be 

 put at a foot apart. They should be kept clean by hoe- 

 ing between them, and the ground between them should 

 be digged in the fall, but not at any other season of the 

 year. The plants will grow fast or slowly according to 

 the management j and, the proper age for budding'or 

 grafting is from three to five years ; but it is better_to 

 have a strong stock than a too weak or too young one. 

 The younger they are the sooner they will bear, but the 

 sooner they, also, decline and perish. To speak of the 

 kind of stocks most suitable to the different kinds of 

 fruit-trees is reserved till we come to speak of the trees 

 themselves j but there are some remarks to be made 

 here, which have a general application, relative to the 

 kinds of stocks. It is supposed by some persons, that 

 the nature of the stock affects the nature of the fruit ; 

 that is to say, that the fruit growing on branches, pro- 

 ceeding from a bud, or a graft, partakes, more or less, of 

 the flavour of the fruit which would have grown on the 

 stock if the stock had been suffered to grow to a tree 

 and to bear fruit. This is Mr. MARSHALL'S notion. But, 

 how erroneous it is must be manifest to every one, when 

 he reflects, that the stock for the pear tree is frequently 

 the white-thorn. Can a pear partake of the nature of the 

 haw, which grows upon the thorn, and which is a stone- 

 fruit too ? If this notion were correct, there could be 

 hardly a single apple-orchard in all England ; for they 

 are all grafted upon crab-stocks ; and, of course, all the 

 apples, in the course of years, would become crabs. 



