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LXXXV. On promoting the early Puberty of Apple and Pear 

 Trees, when raised from Seed. By John Williams, Esq. 

 of Pitmaston, near Worcester. 



Read March 4, 1817. 



y persons inclined to become experimentalists in 

 raising fruit trees from seed, with a view of obtaining new, 

 improved, and more hardy varieties, have been deterred 

 from the attempt by the great length of time requisite for 

 ascertaining the result of their industry : for the Apple tree, 

 when raised in the common way from the kernel, rarely 

 affords its first blossom before it is eight or ten years old, and 

 the Pear tree requires even a longer period, twelve or fifteen 

 summers often elapsing, before the leaves of seedling trees 

 are capable of forming their first blossom buds. Reflecting, 

 some years ago, on Mr. Knight's theory of the circulation 

 of the sap, and observing the change in the appearance of 

 the leaves of my seedling plants, as the trees advanced in 

 growth, I thought it might be possible to hasten the pro- 

 gress of the plants, and procure that peculiar organization 

 of the leaf necessary to the formation of blossom-buds, at a 

 much earlier age ; and I conceive the following experi- 

 ments tend strongly to confirm the justness of my expecta- 

 tions. 



The facts are these : in November and December, 1809, I 

 sowed the kernels of several ripe Pears, in separate pots, and 

 placed them in a green-house during the winter. They began 



