294 On the Causes of Decay in Fruit Trees. 



ducing the very effect we were endeavouring to prevent ; we 

 have not only raised many tender varieties, but have grafted 

 them upon stocks, which, it is highly probable, were also 

 impatient of cold during vegetation, and thus the destruction 

 of our trees has been doubly accelerated. 



But though all the varieties are comparatively tender, yet 

 some are much more so than others, and hence arises a very 

 important branch of the Horticulturist's care, to select 

 those which are the least liable to be affected by the vicis- 

 situdes of our variable climate. In supposing that want 

 of summer heat is the principal cause of decay, I would 

 by no means be understood to assert that it is the only one ; 

 I can easily conceive that other causes may combine to pro- 

 duce it, and both reason and analogy point out to us that 

 old age must have its effect, and perhaps in some old va- 

 rieties, it maybe the only cause; that very weakness of 

 constitution which is produced by culture in the one case, 

 may be the consequence of age in the other. 



My principal object in sending you this communication, is 

 to prevent the too prevalent practice of destroying old or- 

 chard grounds on account of their diseased and unproductive 

 state ; if there be any truth in the preceding observations, 

 this ought not to be solely attributed to the tree, but to the 

 change of climate, arising, most probably, from local and 

 accidental causes, and which will equally affect both the old 

 and new varieties of fruit. Every person, therefore, ought 

 to pause before he proceeds to destroy an orchard, merely 

 because it does not bear. It is to be hoped that those 

 genial summers which gladdened and warmed the hearts of 



