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LXX. On the superior Healthfulness of Scions taken from 

 the Trunks of Apple Trees, to those cut from the extremities 

 of the Branches. In a Letter to the Secretary. By Thomas 

 Andrew Knight, Esq. F. R. S. $c. President. 



Read April 6th, 1819. 



My dear Sir, 



I have addressed to you a bundle of Cuttings from a Golden 

 Pippin tree, in which I have some reason to hope, that the 

 powers of life are not so much expended by age, as in those 

 usually employed as grafts. They were produced under 

 the following circumstances. I purchased a small estate in 

 a part of Herefordshire, in which the Apple tree grows 

 with more than ordinary health and vigour, and upon it I 

 found a Golden Pippin Tree of an extraordinary age and 

 size, its trunk measuring more than six feet in circumference. 

 Its young branches were, as usual, much cankered; but 

 the trunk was perfectly free from every appearance of 

 disease ; and as I had always found, that cuttings taken 

 from the trunks of seedling old trees grow much more vigo- 

 rously than those taken from the extremities of bearing 

 branches, I was led to think it probable that Scions, obtained 

 from the healthy trunk of an old grafted tree, might be found 

 to exhibit, to some extent, similar powers. 



I therefore took off the branches of my old tree; and I 

 in consequence obtained the Scions you receive. They 

 will succeed better upon Paradise, than upon Crab, stocks. 

 vol. in. 3 E 



