318 On Fruits and Fruit Trees. 



Grapes from Layers and from Eyes. I have never been able, 

 after a year or two, to observe any difference in their habits. A 

 prejudice has sometimes arisen against layers, owing to their 

 being planted with vigorous shoots, and not very vigorous roots ; 

 that is, layers but one year in pots. We English nurserymen 

 are apt to sell all our plants too young: in this trading country, 

 one wants a quick return, even nurserymen ! ! " Heaven save 

 the mark ! ! " why, we ought not to have a return, but once in 

 ten years. Grapes ought to be layed in 32-pots the first year; 

 removed from the stool, and put. into larger pots, the second year ; 

 again removed into twelves the third or fourth year, and not 

 sold till they bear fruit; and then the gentleman who plants his 

 vinery in January may have an abundant crop of grapes in 

 September. Again, our trained apples, pears, plums, cherries, 

 peaches, nectarines, and apricots should be trained two years to 

 form the plants ; and then, instead of allowing them to get full 

 of rampant and luxuriant wood, let them be removed every 

 season, till all their shoots are fully furnished with blossom buds, 

 and their roots are in a state to give those buds enough nourish- 

 ment to bear fruit even the first season of removal ; so that the 

 planter on the wrong side of sixty may not have occasion to sigh 

 when he looks at his fruit trees, and to mentally ejaculate, 

 " Before you give me fruit, I may cease to require it." 



Perhaps, to do all this, a nurseryman ought to have his three- 

 score and ten years extended to five score and ten; but, above 

 all, he must have his price increased. Now, here is the difficulty : 

 in doing all this, we should, like many other great but unre- 

 munerated men, live before our times : our trees* that would 

 save a man seven years of his life, would be wanted at the same 

 price as an unprepared tree ; for, in writing, A. will offer a 

 trained tree at 5s., B. will offer his at 7s. 6d., and in a note calls 

 his prepared trees in a fruiting state; nevertheless, A. will have 

 the order, because he is cheaper, and B.'s recommendation will 

 be thought the puff professional. This will take place in eight 

 cases out of ten, for in such disproportion are intelligent amateurs 

 of gardening; so that poor B., like all clever fellows that march 

 too fast, will find that his peep in futuro will give him but 

 little profit. However, as the plan has not yet been tried to any 

 extent, let us hope, in this advancing age, that prepared fruit 

 trees may, in a short time, be appreciated. I shall most certainly 

 try it ; and will, some distant day (life permitting), send you a 

 trained Easter beurre pear, with a blossom bud at every joint, 

 and see you pluck pears in October, from a tree planted the 

 same year. J. Rivers, Jun. 



Sansobridgeaoorth Nursery, Feb, 1834. 



