1*0 
Aikelv kinds, as Mr, Knight practised and recommended. 
But crossing, as we all know, or ought to know, can only 
transmit such inheritance as has already been obtained, 
< or stamped on the character, or that degree of improve¬ 
ment, by some previous means in the secrets of Nature. 
How was the savage Sloe or sour Crab converted from 
the wilding to that degree of improvement which could be 
made available by the application of the pollen ? Sloes 
are Sloes and Crabs are Crabs from the beginning to 
this hour, and yet as good fruit had been got from ihem 
before pollen and crossing were known to us as have 
«ince been brought on the stage by their means. 
The improvement of fruit by means of crossing appears 
to me to be only a quicker mode of obtaining that im¬ 
provement which generations before us had the power 
and the means of procuring for themselves by a much 
slower process. Now, if their power and their means 
were more fully understood by us, which I maintain they 
are not, and we were to apply them to the parents and 
offspring of crossed fruit, we ought to make sure work 
of our seedlings—at least, much more sure than has yet 
been obtained. Most of my garden acquaintances at the 
time of the passing of the Emancipation Act, in 1829, 
knew that my young notions were for some years directed 
to experiments on all kinds of fruit under a scientific 
patron, who was an intimate friend of Mr. Knight on his 
right, and of Mr. Williams, of Pitmaston, on his left. 
The three often met on the subject of their hobby, and 
after every such meeting, or consultation, or conflict of 
opinions, I was pretty sure of my task—a fresh set of ex¬ 
periments; and if we had all lived together to this day, I 
might be able now to give a better version of the ways of 
Nature in the amelioration of the wildings than is to be 
found anywhere in print. As it is, I can go no farther 
than I have just said, the mere assertion of an opinion, 
that what is laid down by physiologists as the foundation 
of improvement in fruits is entirely different from the 
way Nature has been at work with them since they were 
wildings. That opinion has been in black and white since 
1836, when I ceased from my fruit labours so far. and 
whatever be its worth or value it is not a new or hasty 
conclusion on my part. 
All that, however, is merely a preface to a practical 
application to some fruit trees of an early “ project.” In 
the olden times all manner of cuttings were made with 
one joint of the old or two-year-old wood at the bottom. 
The first cutting I ever made was that way—it was of a 
Rhododendron hirsutum. It lived seven months under 
my treatment without making a root; and if it had lived 
on to this day, the chances are it would be just as far 
from making a plant. Two years after that, the gardener 
of Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, at lielucas, on the Findhorn 
[River, told me what I learned for the first time—that it 
was not at all essential to success to have a joint of the 
old wood at the bottom of a cutting. This was about the 
end of July, and he was then finishing off about fourteen 
or sixteen thousand cuttings of the common Laurel—the 
crop of one season, and not one of the cuttings he assured 
me had an old joint. Sir Thomas first put him “ up 
to it.” 
The question has not yet been raised whether fruit 
trees or any kind of them would do better on their own 
roots than on stocks, like having Poses on their roots. 
The stocks for Apples, Pears, Plums, and Cherries 
are not always more hardy than the kinds worked on 
them. The Peach and Nectarine are worked on Plum 
stocks, because the Plum stocks are more hardy, and 
therefore more suitable to our soil, and climate than the 
Almond or any variety of the Peach, on which they 
would, probably, live longer and in better health in a 
climate congenial to their less hardy nature. The Fig is 
still “worked” on its own roots, although by Nature 
they would seem to need soil quite as warm as the roots 
of the Peach. The Vine, also, is still held on its own 
roots, although it is well known there are other kinds of 
GENTLEMAN, Decembeb 2o, 1860. 
Grape Vines with a much more hardy constitution on 
which it would pay to work them for our vineries. But 
for Peach-liouses and for orchard-houses with trees in 
pots, the roots of Peaches and Vines receive as much, 
if not more, heat and less cold than is natural to them in 
their own natural climate: therefore, knowing as we 
do that all stone fruit, as the Plum, Peach, and Cherry, 
are shorter-lived and more liable to gum when worked 
than when growing on their own free roots from the 
kernel in a suitable soil and climate, would it not be a 
point of some advantage to have all the kinds of stone 
fruit on their own roots for the orchard-house culture, 
and for all in-door work ? 
I think there can be no question on this head of my 
subject at least. Then the question whether stone fruit, 
under particular circumstances, would not do better on 
their own roots is thus raised, and I have an answer to it 
in the affirmative in one particular instance—that of 
Plums; and I am assured by a good gardener who has 
followed the practice for the last twenty-five years, that 
all sorts of Plums will come from cuttings as freely as 
Gooseberries ; and that bearing-trees for the garden, or 
fruiting-bushes of Plums for the orchard-house, can be 
had from cuttings in less time than by any of the modes 
of working them on stocks, and the experience of twenty- 
five years confirms this, “ whatever may have been the 
success of some late projects,” as Miller puts it. And I 
have been strongly recommended to try the plan in the 
Experimental Garden by the inventor himself, Mr. A. 
McKelvie, the gardener at Stevenstone, near Torrington, 
from whose letters I give the subjoined extract with his 
own free will and consent. 
“ In return for a Christmas-box of Esperiones, or part 
remuneration, you may inform the fruit-growing readers 
of The Cottage Gaedenee, that the best way to grow 
Plums is to have the trees on their own roots; and the 
best time and way to propagate them is in November or 
December, by taking two-year-old wood for cuttings 
(and the stronger they are the better for this method), 
shortening all the fruit-spurs, or the young wood of side- 
shoots, to one bud or joint from the wood of the cutting. 
Any garden ground suitable for Plums will do to put 
these cuttings in, and the only necessary preparation 
required is to tread down the soil firmly about them, so 
as to have them as firm as a stake, which each of them 
will then resemble except the roughness left by the close 
pruning. They should be inserted eight inches in the 
ground, and they may be from one foot to five feet out of 
the ground, according to the length of the shoots or 
branches fixed on for the purpose. Ninety out of a 
hundred will grow; but if last season’s or one-year-old 
wood is used, ninety-five per cent, of them will die.” 
He said he was read in books from Daniel to Donald’s, 
without meeting with the case in point; but “he does 
not presume to say that this is a new idea,” so I shall 
have to sustain it for him as such. 
Again, as to the particular method of preparing the 
bottom end of the cuttings, “ he never looked upon that 
as of much consequence; but there is a little advantage 
in taking off a slice three inches long from each or 
opposite sides at the bottom, merely taking off the bark 
and a thin portion of the wood just under the bark. The 
roots issue all round these cuts from the bottom itself, 
and from the cut-in spurs.” And again, “ Should any of 
our lady readers wish to try their hand at this mode of 
propagation, they may sharpen the cutting just like a 
flower-stake, which will make it hold firmer in the ground, 
and also present a greater amount of edge of bark for 
the emission of roots than if it were merely cut level 
across at the bottom in the usual way.” 
In another communication on the after-management of 
these cuttings occifrs the following highly philosophical 
remark “ The cuttings, or young trees, ought to stand 
two seasons in the same place to gain sufficient strength 
for the roots, and the shoots they make the first and 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY 
