244 OCTOBER 



even with the bush orchards of Kent or Wisbech I In 

 some of the older orchards no more than a single apple 

 or pear survives ; but happily a great Cambridge man of 

 science has, with abettors, toured through the West year 

 after year and collected into a sort of living museum 

 every known variety of cider apple and perry pear ; and 

 these old sorts, thanks to skill in grafting, flourish on 

 young and lusty stock. The pick of the bunch still 

 number over a hundred and grow side by side in a single 

 orchard, and none that is likely to be of any value is any 

 longer in danger of extinction. There is a sentimental 

 value in such rescue that extends beyond the economic 

 or scientific value of the salvage. What a fine art this 

 grafting is ! I saw one orchard tree as big and flourishing 

 as its neighbours, bearing many hundredweight of apples, 

 comely and natural in shape, which was grafted just four 

 and a half years ago. You could hardly see where the 

 grafts had been inserted and the old boughs cut. All or 

 any of us may, when we please, change a variety into a 

 better variety and not lose more than a year or two. We 

 can, of course, have different varieties on the same tree, 

 and it is, perhaps, surprising that such freaks of grafting 

 are not more common. We graft at Easter time : yet 

 one of these Western wizards has, for experiment s sake, 

 successfully grafted at every season, almost in every 

 month of the year. More power to his elbow ! 



The orchards of the West the true Hesperides that 

 begin to return to their ancient, or more than their 

 ancient, glory, are a part of the landscape, like wood and 

 field, and in autumn give you the savour for harvest, and 

 the joy in harvest, as fully as any cornfield, and much 

 more fully than the eastern bush and cordon orchards of 

 what are called eating apples. The trees are almost like 

 forest trees, growing lustily and interlacing their boughs 



