the Mnkinrj of Cidor and Ferry. 
385 
they do not very much exceed the above size; and the objection 
to a g^ieater size is the difficulty of taking them up with a due 
jiroporiion of roots, so as to prevent them receiving too great a 
check. It must be obvious from analogy that early transplanting 
is preferable to late, provided the trees be well and substantially 
fenced against injury from live stock of every kind — that is, with 
posts and rails, and with thorns immediately surrounding the body 
of the tree. The haljit of keeping the trees in the nursery until 
they are what are called strong trees, can have arisen only from 
the feeble fencing they too generally receive, by which the tree is 
often made the chief support of the protecting thorns or furze. 
The subject of grafting necessarily involves that of the selection 
of sorts. The best fruit, whether for cider-press or the table, are 
frequently not the most productive. Every individual seed pro- 
duces a new variety, differing more or less from the parent tree ; 
and all the best varieties we possess are derived from one common 
parent (the native crab), and owe their excellence to selection 
and cultivation, in like manner as the most polished society of the 
present day is derived from a race originally rude and savage. 
Each particular variety of apple has its period of vigour and 
decline, and its duration cannot be protracted by grafting be- 
yond a certain limit ; and it is very remarkable that within that 
natural limit, the grafts partake both of the vigour and the de- 
crepitude of the parent tree or variety. The period of duration is 
not known with any precision, and perhaps is longer in some 
varieties than in others. It is generally supposed, however, that 
it never much exceeds two centuries. Mr. Knight, one of the 
most profound physiologists of this or any other country, has ob- 
served that the disease called canker is always the consequence of 
grafting trees from very old sorts, and which are in their declining 
age; and that though the graft will often grow vigorously at first, 
it soon begins to exhibit symptoms of disease, which no manage- 
ment can avert. It seems probable that even the power of grow- 
ing at all cannot be extended beyond the limit, barring accidents, 
which nature has assigned to the existence of the original parent 
or patriarch of the family. 
Many kinds once very celebrated have long since disappeared 
from the catalogues of gardeners, and can now nowhere be found; 
while many other varieties, which were much esteemed in their 
palmy days of bearing, are fast approaching to extinction, and at 
the present time present only a few scattered and dwindling spe- 
cimens, amongst which we regret to number the celebrated 
Cockagee cider-apple and some excellent pippins. By the in- 
dustry of horticulturists, however, a great number of new varieties 
of excellent quality have been raised to supply the place of those 
we have lost and are losing, in which there is more merit than 
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