104 
Fruit-growing in Kent. 
degeneracy. The conclusions arrived at by Mr. Darwin, after 
a most elaborate exposition of experiments upon various plants, 
are, "that cross fertilisation is generally beneficial, and self- 
fertilisation injurious. This is shown by the difference in weight, 
height, constitutional vigour, and fertility of the offspring from 
crossed and self-fertilised flowers, and in the number of seeds 
produced by the parent plants After plants have been 
propagated by sell-fertilisation for several generations, a single 
cross with a fresh stock restores their pristine vigour ; and we 
have a strictly analogous result with our domestic animals." 
Very curious notions have also been extant from very early 
days as to grafting. Pliny gives a graphic account of a 
grafted tree which was covered with all kinds of fruits — nuts, 
berries, grapes, pears, figs, pomegranates ; but the tree did not 
live long is his conclusion. Lord Bacon also gravely speaks, 
in his ' Silva Silvarum,' of apple scions grafted upon a cole- 
wort, which produced great flaggy apples. Kentish growers 
now generally discredit the absurdities as to grafted trees, and 
attribute the decay of some old sorts, as the Ribston Pippin 
and the Nonpareil, in particular places, to the exhaustion of 
essential elements in the soil,* to bad treatment, to consti- 
tutional delicacy, and liability to blight and canker. To 
these causes may be added the change in the temperature, 
to which allusion has been made. The crab is the proper 
stock to graft apples upon, but as the supply of these stocks is 
limited, the best stocks are selected from those that have been 
raised from pips for that purpose in a nursery, and are grafted 
with scions of the kind required. The stocks are chosen from 
those sorts which have clear, hard stems, and are moved into 
the orchard when they are from 4 to 5 years old. The process 
of grafting requires much care and nicety, but as this has been 
so elaborately treated in a former number of this Journal, t it is 
not necessary to describe it again. Most growers cut the young 
tree hard the first year it is planted out, as this is supposed 
to favour root development. A practical and most successful 
grower, however, objects to this practice, considering " that the 
tree has enough to do to establish its roots without being weak- 
ened by cutting." For the first few years the young apple-tree 
should be pruned so as to keep the middle well cleared out and 
the leading shoots as level as possible. When the tree is well 
* " When in an old orchard the trees are worn out, I should not recommend it 
being replauted at least with the same kind of fruit-trees. It will be better to 
select a new field, and fresh unexhausted soil." — Mr. Cadle, ' Worcester Prize 
Essay ou the Management of Orchards,' 'Journal' E. A. S. E., vol. i. 2nd series. 
t ' On the Planting, Management, and After-management of Orchards.' Mr. 
Cadle, vol. i. 2nd series, ' Journal ' R. A. S. E. 
