52 



tji|iould be 

 grafted from 

 ■bearing 

 branches. 

 Grafts to be 

 selected with 

 care. 



Apple trees 

 raised with ar]. 

 vantage from 

 cuttings. 



These well 

 adapted to 

 forcing. 



and continue 

 in health longer 

 than grafts. 



This discover- 

 ed by accident. 



Effects of soil 

 on the *pplc 

 tree. 



May be twns- 

 Jdanltd large. 



cultuhe of apple thees. 



which I have not scrupled to recommend : but, after all, 

 whether a gentleman plants many or few trees, his future 

 success and gratification depend principally upon the judg- 

 ment of his gardener, in choosing such trees in the nursery, 

 as have been grafted from hearing branches; and if I thought 

 myself authorised to give any hints to our nursery-men, it 

 would be relative to the selection of their grafts and buds, 

 not only in the apple tree, but every sort of fruit tree, about 

 which they are in general too careless. 



] must now observe that the apple tree will grow readily by 

 cuttings^ and that trees raised in this way, from healthy one 

 year old branches, with blossom buds upon them, will continue 

 to go on bearing the very finest possible fruit, in a small com- 

 pass, for many years. Such trees are also peculiarly proper 

 for forcing, by way of curiosity or luxury, and I believe 

 tliat they are less liable to canker than when raised by graft- 

 ing, though I am unable to assign any reason for it. I have 

 more than once experienced this in the golden pippin, cuttings 

 of which have remained seven years in perfect health, when 

 grafts taken not only from the same tree, but from the very 

 branch, part of which was divided into cuttings, cankered in 

 two or three years. Accident, which brings to light so many 

 useful things, first taught me this practice; some cuttings, 

 that I had stuck into the ground for marks of annual flowers, 

 having all made roots. 1'he soil was loamy, and the summer 

 proved so wet and cold, that many bunches of grapes in a 

 large greenhouse, which I could not prevail upon the gentle- 

 man I then served to be at the expense of thinning with 

 scissars, rotted when green. 



The soil at Twickenham is light, and inclined to sand 

 rather than loam, in which the apple tree will ripen its fruit 

 earlier and more completely than in a stiflfer soil, but it will 

 not last so long. Young seedling plants will also produce 

 their blossoms and fruits in a shorter period in such soil. 

 Our trees being originally placed too near each other, I have 

 transplanted several into other quarters with very great suc- 

 cess, even after they had attained a- considerable magnitude. 

 In doing this, I was careful to preserve every root possible 

 both great and small, to have the ground where they were to 



be 



