By the Rev. James Venables. 



41 



inferior quality. I think it probable, however, that we owe some 

 of our best fruits more to the undisturbed production of nature, 

 than to the operations of art. An apple has fallen from some tree, 

 and lain unobserved ; the fruit has decayed on the spot, and en- 

 riched the ground ; and from the soil thus peculiarly prepared by 

 nature, has sprung up a tree, whose produce has proved of peculiar 

 excellence and flavour. 



This view of the subject will receive some confirmation from 

 the circumstance, that it is seedling fruit-trees only which dete- 

 riorate from the qualities of the parent stock, or return to the wild 

 state, as our gardeners suppose, whose seeds have been separated 

 from the rich fruit in which they were enveloped, and been de- 

 prived of that peculiar pabulum, which was provided by nature for 

 their first developement. The Apple Pip itself may possibly ripen 

 better, and be earlier prepared for vegetation, in a separate state, 

 but when it is sown, I do not hesitate to recommend its being 

 again inserted in fruit of the same kind, or in mould enriched by an 

 admixture of decayed apples.* In short, I would follow the course 

 pointed out by nature, as closely as the case will admit. 



I will only add, that these ideas are not altogether theoretical, 

 but partly the result of experiment. A few years ago I saved 

 some Apple Pips in my garden, and having the same spring a 

 quantity of decayed Apples, I put them into the furrow with the 

 pips, and applied them to the enriching the soil. Of the seedlings 

 thus raised, a few have begun to bear fruit, and almost every one 

 of good flavour. I send a specimen of one sort for the judgment 

 of the Fruit Committee. 



I am, Sir, 



Your very obedient servant, 



Buckland Ccrne, Dorset. JAMES VeNABLES. 



* Perhaps it might be best to extract the core with a scoop, fill the cavity with earth, 

 into which one or more pips may be introduced, and then to plant the apple in the ground. 



