FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 49 
period. John Gardener directs the stocks for grafts of both 
apples and pears to be planted in January, the apple on an 
apple-stock, and the pear “ a-pon a haw-thorne.” The 
grafting, he says, should take place any time between Sep¬ 
tember and April: 
“ Wyth a saw thou schalt the tre kytte 
And with a knyfe smowth make hytte 
Klene a-tweyne the stok of the tre 
Where-yn that they graffe schall be 
Make thy Kyttyng’ of thy graffe 
By-twyne the newe & the olde staffed’ 
Clay had to be laid on the stock, “ tokepethe rayneowte,” and 
moss bound over the clay with “ a wyth of haseltree rynde.” 
Most of the early writers on gardening and husbandry devote a 
large share of their treatises to grafting, and various experi¬ 
ments to change the colour or flavour of the fruits were made. 
Robert Salle is quoted as an authority on grafting in the 
fifteenth century. 1 He says : “ Yf thou wilt make thyn apples 
reede, take the graffe of an appel tree and graffe hit on a stok 
of elme or aldyr and hit shall ber’ reede apples.’* “ Make an 
hole w* a wymbyll’ in a tree and what colour thw wilt distempre 
hit with water and put hit in at the hole and the fruit shal be 
of the same colour.” 2 
It was considered the most essential part of a husbandman’s 
education that he should be well skilled in grafting, as the 
following lines, though of later date, so well describe : “ It is 
necessarye, profytable, and also a pleasure, to a housbande, to 
have peares, wardens, and apples of dyuerse sortes. And also 
cheryes, filberdes, bulleys, dampsons, plummes, walnuttes, and 
suche other. And therefore it is convenyent to lerne howe 
thou shalte graffe.” 3 
Gardens of this date were usually square enclosures, bounded 
either by walls of stone, brick, or daub, or by thick hedges. 
There were generally two entrances to them ; one, a door 
opening from the house, the other giving access from the 
1 Sloane MS., 122. 
2 The same recipes are also given in the Porkington Treatise printed 
for the Warton Club, 1855, ed. by Halliwell. 
3 Book of Husbandry, by FitzHerbert, 1544, ed. Skeat, 1882. 
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