apple; 



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Treatise on Orchard Fruit the doctrine wzs first 

 broached, that all our varieties and subvarieties of 

 fruits have but a temporary existence. They are 

 raised from seed, flourish for an uncertain number of 

 years, and, after arriving at their maximum of health 

 and fertility, gradually sink to decay, and at length 

 disappear. . Taking this idea as a rule, the golden 

 pippin was judged to be in this last stage of existence ; 

 and it was predicted, that not only were the old full- 

 grown trees to disappear, but all the young ones, 

 lately worked from them, would perish also. It must 

 be admitted, that a great majority of the old golden 

 pippin trees An Herefordshire and in other parts of 

 the kingdom were, about the time Mr. Knight 

 wrote his treatise, in an apparent state of decay ; 

 and moreover, that young trees of the same sort 

 could but with difficulty be made to grow and bear so 

 freely as they had previously done. Tliese failures, 

 however, were accounted for in another way than 

 that propounded by Mr. Knight. It was observed, 

 that the old trees having probably all been planted 

 about the same time, and having arrived at their 

 natural period of healthy existence, were, like all 

 other trees, falling to decay from sheer old age ; and 

 that the contemporaneous weakness and debility of 

 the young lately planted trees, were caused by a 

 careless choice of grafts — by working them on 

 improper stocks ^ — and planting them in old worn- 

 out soil, instead of in fresh well-trenched, light, loamy 

 situations. This latter opinion was the more feasible, 

 because there were many middle-aged trees in differ- 



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