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the fault, or rather the misfortune, is ascribed in nine 

 cases out of ten to the subsoil ; but this is a hasty con- 

 cUision. The worst garden or orchard soil in the king- 

 dom produces some healthy tree ; if only one, why 

 not more of the same species or variety? Simply 

 because there is only one of the stocks used in this 

 instance which prefers that particular soil. Now, if 

 we take pieces of the roots of this particular stock, 

 and graft on them, we may reasonably expect that, 

 other circumstances being favourable, they will produce 

 trees as vigorous and healthy as their parent stock on 

 that particular soil, though they might refuse to do 

 so on soil which we would think more propitious for 

 them. This disposition in trees cannot be scientifi- 

 cally explained ; practically we can easily account for 

 its effects. Apples and pears are grafted on seedling 

 stocks from the seeds of the wild crab, or, what is 

 oftener the case, from seeds of the common apples 

 and pears, which can be more readily procured. Now, 

 seedlings of the apple and pear — indeed, seedlings of 

 all sorts — however truly they may perpetuate species 

 in the eyes of the botanist, are well known to differ 

 from their parents and among themselves in constitu- 

 tional pecuharities, and it is not too much to say 

 that there are as many different kinds of stocks— that 

 is, different constitutionally — for apples and pears in 

 one nursery, as there are different soils in the kingdom 

 to plant them in : this at once explains why a few 



