FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 49 



period. John Gardener directs the stocks for grafts of both 

 apples and pears to be planted in January, the apple on an 

 apple-stock, and the pear " a-pon a haw-thorne." The 

 grafting, he says, should take place any time between Sep- 

 tember and April : 



" Wyth a saw thou schalt the tre kytte 

 And with a knyfe smowth make hytte 

 Klene a-tweyne the stok of the tre 

 Where-yn that they graffe schall be 

 Make thy Kyttyng' of thy graffe 

 By-twyne the newe & the olde staff e." 



Clay had to be laid on the stock, " tokepethe rayneowte," and 

 moss bound over the clay with " a wyth of haseltree rynde." 

 Most of the early writers on gardening and husbandry devote a 

 large share of their treatises to grafting, and various experi- 

 ments to change the colour or flavour of the fruits were made. 

 Robert Salle is quoted as an authority on grafting in the 

 fifteenth century. 1 He says : " Yf thou wilt make thyn apples 

 reede, take the graffe of an appel tree and graffe hit on a stok 

 of elme or aldyr and hit shall ber' reede apples." " Make an 

 hole w* a wymbyll' in a tree and what colour thu wilt distempre 

 hit with water and put hit in at the hole and the fruit shal be 

 of the same colour." 2. 



It was considered the most essential part of a husbandman's 

 education that he should be well skilled in grafting, as the 

 following lines, though of later date, so well describe : " It is 

 necessarye, profytable, and also a pleasure, to a housbande, to 

 have peares, wardens, and apples of dyuerse sortes. And also 

 cheryes, filberdes, bulleys, dampsons, plummes, walnuttes, and 

 suche other. And therefore it is convenyent to lerne howe 

 thou shalte graffe." 3 



Gardens of this date were usually square enclosures, bounded 

 either by walls of stone, brick, or daub, or by thick hedges. 

 There were generally two entrances to them ; one, a door 

 opening from the house, the other giving access from the 



1 Sloane MS., 122. 



2 The same recipes are also given in the Porkington Treatise printed 

 for the Warton Club, 1855, ed. by Halliwell. 



3 Book of Husbandry, by FitzHerbert, 1544, ed. Skeat, 1882. 



