352 DEFECTS OF GRAFTING AND BUDDING 



Trees should be wash in their families, on their apple trees to cleanse them 

 i eane , from vermin. If they would get a man once a year to scrub 



them with a hard brush and urine a little diluted, as one 

 man could do a middle sized orchard in a day, the expense 

 could not amount to 6c? a pipe, and the quantity of cider 

 would infinitely repay the trouble. I am acquainted with a 

 gentleman, who tried it with one tree ; and it bore every 

 year in a surprising manner. But the quantity of crypto- 

 gamian plants, that is allowed to draw off the nourishment 

 from our apple trees (if calculated) would scarcely be be- 

 lieved. All these parasite plants throw their roots into the 

 i trees, as the trees do theirs into the earth ; and equally 



draw forth their support from them. There are many 

 thousands on each tree ; they flower and fruit in a short 

 time; and all the juice for these purposes must be drawn 

 forth from the tree. Does it not therefore stand to reason, 

 that the tree will be weakened, and the fruit lessened by 

 this draining ? Proceed in your examination of the orchard : 

 and view the lumps and excrescences to be found around 

 the grafts. If cut, they will prove full of vermin. They 

 also assist in draining the tree of its nourishment. Wecon- 

 and manured, stantly manure, when we place in the ground seed, from 

 which we expect some return. This is done in every casej 

 except in orchards. Why should they alone give all, and 

 receive nothing? The consequence is plain. They have 

 what they call a good year but once in three. I once 

 knew a butcher, who had an orchard that yielded many 

 pipes every year. He was said by his neighbours to be a 

 lucky man, and envied accordingly. I inquired into his 

 manner of managing. A few times in the year he diluted 

 some fresh blood (bullock's I believe) and poured it on the 

 roots of his trees ; covering them with a fresh layer of 

 earth. This might take him probably four or five days in 

 the year to accomplish ; and his orchard yielded him double 

 the quantity it was in the custom of doing before this 

 practice. There is perhaps no gain so sure as that we give 

 to the earth : it always returns fourfold. 

 Juncture of the I shall now endeavour to explain the sort of bolster, or 

 graft and stock, bourrelet, which joins the stock and scion. It is of the 

 greatest consequence to the tree, and influences ; I doubt 



not. 



