12 



DURATION OF VARIETIES OF FRUIT-TREES. 



the health of the stock, yet the tree, when it arrives at a bearing state, 

 will, sooner or later, suffer from the diseased or feeble nature of the 

 stock. 



Carelessness in selecting scions for engrafting is another fertile source 

 of degeneracy in varieties. Every good cultivator is aware that if 

 grafts are cut from the ends of old bearing branches, exhausted by over- 

 bearing, the same feebleness of habit will, in a great degree, be shared 

 by the young graft. And on the contrary, if the thrifty straight shoots 

 that are thrown out by the upright extremities, or the strong limb- 

 sprouts, are selected for grafting, they ensure vigorous growth, and 

 healthy habit in the graft. 



Finally, unfavorable soil and climate are powerful agents in deterio- 

 rating varieties of fruit-tree. Certain sorts that have originated in a 

 cold climate are often short-lived and unproductive when taken to 

 warmer ones, and the reverse. This arises from a want of constitutional 

 fitness for a climate different from its natural one. 



Most varieties of apples originating in the climate of the Middle 

 States, if their period of maturity be mid-winter, when taken to the ex- 

 treme northern limits lose their value, because of the season not being 

 long enough for their juices to become fully matured. Again, if they 

 are taken to the Southern States their period of maturity is hastened 

 by a greater amount of continued heat, and the quality impaired. 



Varieties, however, that originate at the North, and have their matu- 

 rity naturally in the warm summer months, are improved by their 

 removal South. But this only proves that it is impossible to pass cer- 

 tain natural limits of fitness for climate, and not that the existence of 

 the variety itself is in any way affected by these local failures. 



Any or all of these causes are sufficient to explain the apparent decay 

 of some varieties of fruit, and especially of pears, over which some culti- 

 vators, of late, have uttered so many lamentations, scarcely less pathetic 

 than those of Jeremiah. 



Having stated the theories on this subject, and given an outline of 

 our explanation, let us glance for a moment at the actual state of the 

 so-called decayed varieties, and see whether they are really either extinct, 

 or on the verge of annihilation. 



Mr. Knight's own observation in England led him to consider the 

 English Golden Pippin and the Nonpareil, their two most celebrated 

 varieties of apple, as the strongest examples of varieties just gone to de- 

 cay, or, in fact, the natural life of which had virtually expired twenty 

 years before. A few years longer he thought it might linger on in the 

 warmer parts of England, as he supposed varieties to fall most speedily 

 into decay in the north, or in a cold climate. 



Lindley, however, his contemporary, and second to no one in practi- 

 cal knowledge of the subject, writing of the Golden Pippin,* very frank- 

 ly states his dissent, as follows : " This apple is considered by some of 

 our modern writers on Pomology to be in a state of decay, its fruit of 

 inferior quality, and its existence near its termination. I cannot for a 

 moment agree with such an opinion, because we have facts annually be- 

 fore our eyes completely at variance with such an assertion. In Covent 

 Garden, and indeed in any other large market in the southern or mid- 

 land counties of England, will be found specimens of fruit as perfect 



* Guide to the Orchard, by George Lindley. 



