The Manufacture of Cider and Perry

The Manufacture of Cider and Perry

-FREATISE ON THE CULTURE OF THE APPLE & PEAR,, AND ON THE MANUFACTURE. 7 ; CIDER & PERRY... pone ere padiens By T. 4. KNiGHa Esq. ° ow cacsact EEE SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED, Ludlow : PRINTED AND SOLD BY H. PROCTER}; . SOLD IN LONDON BY “LONGMAN AND REES, PATER-NOSTER-ROW ; AND J. WHITE, FLEET-STREET. PIL 1801, S46 47044, ZO w HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY FROM TUE HEIRS OF GEORGE ¢, DEMPSEY Bus Gift of P Heirs 0 The a. hn ‘a e* ex e* Tue effects of cultivation on the animal and vegetable systems are ex- tremely similar. A change in form, in colour, and in size or stature, takes place in each; and in each those changes appear ' to arise from similar.cayses—from a more — abundant and regular supply of nourish- ment than is afforded in a state of nature, | with a favourable climate, or protection from the bad effects of an indifferent one. The offspring of every plant and animal, . when unchanged by cultivation, bears a very close resemblance to it’s parents; but amongst the cultivated kinds of each, it is _ extremely various; still, however, generally shewing some similarity to them. By ta- B king 4 king advantage of incidental variations, and by propagating from those individuals which approach nearest to our ideas of per- fection, improved varieties of fruit, as well as of animals, are obtained. Much atten- tion has in the present day been paid to the improvement of the latter, whilst the for- ‘mer have been almost-entirely ‘neglected’: probably from an opinion that these, being natives of warmer climates, of necessity degenerate in this. This opinion is how- ‘ever unfounded; a more favourable climate would no doubt be advantageous to every plant and animal; but the stall and mea- dow counter-balance the defects of our cli- ‘mate in the improvement of the one, and ‘it is probable that the south wall and highly manured border will have the sarne good effects in the other, and that the changes produced in each will be in pro- “portion ‘to the skill and ‘industry of thie cultivator. 3 The Apple (on the culture of which I propose to offer some observations in the following pages) is not the natural produce of any soil, or climate; but owes its exist- ence to human art and industry; and dif- fers from the crab, which is a native of every part of England, only in the changes which cultivation has produced in it. The first varieties which were e cultivated in Eng- continent ; but at what period is not, I believe, known. Many were introduced by @ fruiterer of Henry the eighth, and some at subsequent periods; but J am in- clined to think that, we are indebted to the jndustry of the planters of the easly part of the last, and the end of the preceding cen- tury, for most of those we have at present, and probably for all the old fine cider fruits. Of these they have left us a sufficient num-_ ber; but the existence of every variety of B 2 _ this 6 this fruit, appears to be confined to a cer- tain period, during the earlier parts of which only, it cari be propagated with ad- vantage to the planter. No kind of apple, now cultivated, appears to have existed more than two hundred years; and this term does not at all exceed the duration of a healthy tree, or of an orchard when graft- ed on crab-stocks, and planted in a strong _ tenacious soil. From the description Par- kinson, who wrote in 1629, has given of ‘the apples cultivated in his time, it is evi- dent that those now known by the same ‘names are different, and probably new varieties; and though many of those men- tioned by Evelyn, who wrote between thirty and forty years later, stillremain, they ‘appear no longer to deserve the attention ‘of the planter. The Moil, and its success- ful rival the Redstreak, with the Musts and Golden Pippin, are in the last stage of , _ the 7 the decay, and the Stire and Foxwhelp are hastening rapidly after them. In the propagation of animals we can obtain a succession of offspring produced only according to the usual course of na- ture; because an animal forms a whole, whose parts cannot retain life, when sepa- rated fiom each other. The less complex, and less elaborate, organization .of vegeta- bles admits of other modes of propagation ; and a detached part of each individual is capable of forming a plant in every respect similar to that from which it was taken, and possessed of all its powers’ and pro- perties. “Vegetable, however, like animal life, in individuals, appears to have its limits fixed by nature, and immortality has alike been denied to the Oak, and to the Mushroom; to the being of a few days, and of.as many centuries. The general law of nature must be obeyed, and each must ‘BS yield yield its place to a successor. The art of the planter readily divides:a single tree into almost any number that he wishes; but the character of the new trees, thus raised, 4s very essentially different from that of a young seedling plant ; they possess a pre- ter-natural maturity, and retain the habits and diseases of the tree of which they natu- -rally formed a part. All efforts, which have hitherto been ‘made to propagate healthy trees of those varieties which have been long in cu'tiva- tion, have, I believe, been entirely unsuc- cessful. The grafts grow well for two or three years, after which they become cankered and mossy, and appear, what I consider them really to be, parts of the bearing branches of old diseased trees. When I ‘first observed the unhealthy state of all the young trees of these kinds, . I suspected 9 I suspected that it arose from the use of diseased grafts taken from old trees; and that 1 should be able to propagate all the valuable varieties by buds taken from young newly grafted trees, as these cam scarcely be said to take any of the wood of - the old stock with them: but to remove still farther every probability of defect which. might be communicated ftom the ‘old trees, I inserted the young shoots: and buds taken from newly grafted trees in other young stocks, and I repeated this process six times in as many years, each ‘year taking my grafts, and buds, from ‘those inserted in the year preceding. Stocks -of different kinds were also used; some were double grafted, others obtained from the branches of apple-trees which had emit- ted shoots from cuttings, and others from the seeds of each kind afterwards inserted . in them, under the idea that there might 10 be something congenial: to the fruits in stocks of this kind. The grafts grew tole- rably, and equally well in all; but, there was always a want of hardness and elasti- city in the wood,* and at the end of three or four years all began to canker. Several kinds of fruit were subjected to these trials; but principally the Redstreak and Golden Pippin, (particularly the latter) and as these had formerly grown well in the same soil, I began to suspect that their diseases arose from the debility of age, and would consequently - be found incurable. The canker, however, which constitutes their most fatal disease, often arises from other causes. It is always found in those varie- ties which have been long in cultivation, * There appears to be naturally a considerable difference in the hardness of the wood of different varieties of this fruit, and therefore softness in the wood must not always be considered as symptomatic of disease and decay. : 11 and in these it annually becomes more de- structive, and evidently arises from the age of the variety; but it often appears to be hereditary. A gravelly or wet soil, a cold preceding summer, or a high exposed situ- ation, adds much to its virulence. It is most fatal to young free growing trees of old varieties, and I have often seen the strong shoots of these totally destroyed by it, when the old trees growing in the same orchard, and from which the grafts had been taken, were nearly free from the dis- ease. The latter had ceased to grow larger, but continued to bear well, not being of very old kinds of fruit: the young stocks, by affording the grafts a preter-natural abundance of nourishment, seemed in this instance to have brought on the disease ; and I have always found that transplanting, ora heavy crop of fruit, which checked the growth of the tree, diminished it’s dis- ; Position 12 position to canker. In middle-aged trees of very old kinds a succession of young shoots is annually produced by the vigour of the stock, and destroyed again in the succeeding winter: the quantity of fruit these produce is in consequence very small, In this disease something more than a mere extinction of vegetable life appears to take ‘place. The internal bark bears marks of something similar to erosion, and this, I believed formerly to be the original seat of the disease; but subsequent observation has satisfied me that the canker is a dis- ease of the wood, and not of the bark.° It does not appear to me to be ever a prima- ry, or merely local disease, but to arise from the morbid habit of the plant, and to be incurable by any topical application. Being; after much unsuccessful experj- ence, satisfied that those varieties of the . apple, 13 - apple, of which the original trees had long perished from old age, could not be made to grow, I suspected that grafts, taken from very young seedling trees, not yet in a bearing state, could not by any means be made to produce fruit. Having taken cuttings from some of these of two years old, I inserted them in stocks of twenty years old, which had already produced fruit. I afterwards frequently transplanted, and took every means in my power to make . them produce blossoms; but though they grew in rich ground, which probably tend- ed to accelerate their maturity, I did not succeed ’till the seedling trees were twelve years old; and then other grafts of the -same kind, which had been inserted but three years before, and the seedling trees themselves, readily blossomed. Other cut- tings were inserted in very old stocks, which were regrafted; these grew with excessive i4 excessive vigour, but did not produce blossoms so soon as the others, In these experiments I observed that the leaves of the young seedling plants annu- ally changed their character, and became more thick and fleshy, assuming more the appearance of those of the old cultivated kinds. ‘These external changes evidently indicated some internal ones in the consti-_ tution of the plant, which are probably si- milar, in their nature, to those which take place in animals between their infancy and the time when they become capable of pro- pagating their species. The periods, which seedling apple-trees require to attain sufficient maturity to pro- duce fruit, appear’ to admit of more varia- tion than my first experiments induced me to suppose. Some, which I raised, did not produce blossoms till they were sixteen _-years 15 years old; others have blossamed in the ninth and tenth year; and two plants in the present year, have preduced: fruit at only five years.ald: I consider these .as very extraordinary instances-of early maturity, as these two only have occurred in more © than twenty thousand seedling trees that have come under my observation. The rapid change of character in the leaves of these plants attracted my observation when they were but two years old, and i then inserted grafts from one of them in older stocks. These did not blossom in the last spring; but the form and charac- ter of their buds already indicate, that they possess the habit and maturity of the tree from which they were taken, and that — an abundant blossom is forming for the succeeding season. In this instance the ~ grafts, which were inserted in older stocks, produce blossoms one year later than the C° seedling 36 ‘seedling ‘tree: in a few other instances the wgrafted trees have preceded the other a sin- gle year; but this has: been the greatest wariation I have yet observed; and the original tree, and the grafts taken from it, have most frequently produced their first blossoms in the same season. ' From the result of these experiments, and from the general failure of every at- tempt to propagate every old variety of the apple,* Ithink I am justified in the con- clusion ‘The accuracy of my experiments ‘has been ques- ‘tioned (ina very liberal and gentlemanlike manner however) in the Monthly Review, because the result sof them did not agree with those of Mr Forsyru. Zn consequence of the doubts there expressed, and at the desire of Sin Joun Sincrasp, then president of the Buard.of Agriculture, I went to Kensington to see the trees which had -been the subject of Mr. Forsyrn’s experiments. I was shewn some St. (Germain pear trees, whose branches had been taken off, and whose stems had been plaistered, which had IT clusion that all plants of this species,. however propagated from the same stock, partake in some.degree of the same life, and will attend the progress of that-life,, in the habits of-its youth,. its maturity, and’ its decay; though they will not be any way affected by any incidental injuries the: parent. tree may sustain after they are de-- tached from its. The roots however,. and- the trunk adjoining them, appear to pos- sess in all trees a greater degree of durabi-- lity, than. the bearing branches, . having a C2 power ‘had shot forth new branches with great vigour ; but. this variety of the pear is in its middle age, and free from debility and decay. Some trees of the golden - pippin had been subjected to thé same management ; butin these it did not succeed, and I never saw that fruit in a lower state of debility and decay than at Kensington. The object of my present pursuit does. . not call on. me to give any further opinion on the ge- neral merits of Mr. Forsytx’s composition; but E- must say that I donot place much confidence in any topical application to the wounds, or diseases, .of: vegetables Ts power of producing new branches, when the old ones have been destroyed by accident,: or even by old age: and Ihave ‘found that grafts taken from scions, which have sprung out of the trunks of old ungrafted apple and pear trees, grew with much greater luxuriance than those - taken, at the same time, from the ex- tremities of the bearing branches. The former in their growth assumed the ap- pearance of young seedling stocks, and ‘the shoots of the pear were, like those, covered with thorns. ‘Those propagated from the bearing. branches frequently produced fruit the second year, but the ~ ethers remained: long unproductive.* : ; . Other * It appears to me-extremely probable that such trees as the-walnut, and mulberry, which do not pro- duce fruit in less than twenty years, might be ren- dered fruitful in one third of that time, by being grafted with cuttings taken from the productive Branches of an old tree, The walnut has not suc- ceeded. TS . Other grafts, which were taken from- shoots out. of the large boughs, of the pear- - tree, in the intermediate space between the trunk and the bearing branches, partook, . in their form of growth, of the character of each of the foregoing kinds, producing a much smaller quantity of thorns than the one; but not being entirely free from them, like the other. Whence.it appears to fol- - low that there is a progressive change from. the roots to the extremities of the bearing. branches, and probably an increasing ten-- dency to decay; for the life of every tree is . known to be greatly prolonged, when its € 4 branches eeeded, in my hands, when grafted, unless hy ap... ptoach ; but three seedling trees ofone year old thus grafted in 1799 produced an abundant blossom this spring, and would, I have mo doubt, have harne frait; but that the blossoms, and young leaves were all destroyed together by the frost. 1 suspect that grafting by approach, or inarching,-will be feund the - most successful and effectug! method of transferring, . the habits ef the bearing branch.to the grafted tsee.. 20 branches are frequently taken off, and’ it is compelled to make use of the reserved buds with which nature has provided it and I have not the least doubt but that, in the culture of the apple and pear, the life of each original tree might be prolong-’ ed, to three times its natural period, by" robbing it of its branches, as soon as the’ qualities of its fruit were Known, and tetain- ing it as a pollard, or mrore properly in the state of the stools in a coppice, which is felled at regular periods:- for these are Known to possess a much greater. degree of ‘durability than the same kind of trees when left in the natural state, and’ to produce a vigorous succession’ of branches: during many centuries..” It is however probable that, after aeertain period, each effort of nature willbe inferior to the preceding; for timber trees, which have sprung from the stools. of an ald coppice, are. always obser-- ved: QE. ved to attain a small stature, with an early’ maturity and decay.* Shou!d any valuable variety of the ap- ple be retained in the state I have descri- bed, I would recommend that its branches be taken off every third or fourth year, and used for grafts, and that it never be suffered to fulfil the intentions of nature by producing either fruit, or blossoms: under this mode of treatment I have little doubt but that the same variety might be propagated through many. centuries.. It * I believe this observation may. be extended to every kind of tree, and that the Elm and Poplar, which are now propagated by layers and cuttings, would attain a: much larger stature, if raised imme- diately from seed. The trees thus produced’ would ave the advantages of a:greater variety of form, and ef tints in the spring and autumn. foliage, which.are always wanting in those raised from the same stock,. and which’ constitute no small part of the beauty, of: forest:trees, 2e- It appears also probable that the latter period of the existence of the. apple-tree would be considerably prolonged in a southern climate, for all the old kinds . grow best in warm situations, and the - most diseased flourished with the greatest vigour, when] trained them to a south wall... This mode of culture will not suit the ci- der-maker; but it may probably be adopt- ed with much advantage, when new vari- eties are to be obtained from seed; and _ the production of these must be the first thing to engage the attention of the planter of the present day. __ A few varieties of the apple are sufficient Sor the most extensive district, where the soil is of the same kind, and the sityations equally warm; but a very numerous vari-- ety will be wanting: to correct the defects. o€every different soil and aspect. - Wher a When: the plantations on any farm are extensive, it will also be highly advanta- geous to the farmer that his fruit should become ready for the mill at ‘different sea- sons. An apple, as early as the Juneating, would be ripe in July, and the cider this would afford, would soon pass through its fermentation, owing to the heat of the weather at that season, and be ready for use before the end of the corn harvest ; when the same casks. might be filled again. with the produce of later fruits. If other, fruits were planted, capable.of being easily preserved through the winter,* the farmer might be able to fill the same casks a third time, or even more, should he have the: good fortune to meet with as able assist- ants to empty them, as the labouring clas- ses of Herefordshire generally are. As it is .** I have seen apples successfully preserved through winter, by being covered, as potatoes usually are;. with mould.and straw. 24 is also of more consequence to the farmer, ‘and to the community, to have a mode- rate cropof fruit every season, than anabun- dant one with intervening failures, the plantation on each farm should consist of. . some fruits which blossom very early, and. others extremely late. An attention to this point will amply repay any. future planter; and fruits possessing the neces-- sary qualities may be readily obtained: My nursery contains at present many plants, which will rarely be seen, to_blose. som within a month of: each other: The: means by which: these have been produ- ced, I shall, in another place, point out. The fruit liquors, for which the county of Hereford has Iong been celebrated, have always been supposed to derive their excel- lence from some peculiar quality in the soil - which produces them. A preference has however been given to soils. of opposite 25 ‘Kinds by the planters of different ages. “Those of the last century uniformly con- tended in favour of a light sandy loam, and on this their finest ciders were made : at present a soil of a diametrically opposite quality, a strong red clay ts generally prefer- red. Much of the soil, however, which is ‘called clay in Herefordshire, is properly argillaceous marl ; and some of it contains a large portion of calcareous earth, and effervesces strongly with acids: ‘I have found this soil to form the substratum of some orchards much celebrated for produ- cing ciders of the first quality. It appears to have the effect of mitigating the harsh- ness of rough austere fruits; and as the trees grow with great luxuriance in it, it is -perhaps, of all soils, the best calculated to answer the wishes of the planter. But the strongest, and most highly flavoured liquor, which has hitherto been obtained from 26 from the apple, is produced by a soil, which differs from any of those above men- tioned,—the shallow loam, on limestone basis, of the Forest of Dean. Hence it is evident that those qualities of soil, on which the strength and flavour of the li- quor are supposed to depend, either are not discoverable from external appearances, or that liquors of nearly equal excellence may be obtained from soils essentially dif- ferent. My own experience induces me to accede to the latter opinion, and to believe, that with proper varieties of fruit, the defects of almost every soil and aspect might be corrected, and that fine ciders might be made in almost every part of England. Every variety of the apple. is more or less affected by the nature of the soil it grows in; and the excellence of the ciders for- merly made from the Redstreak and ‘Golden 2 Golden Pippm, and at present from the Stire, in light soils, seems to evince that some fruits receive benefit from those qua- hties in the soil, by which ghers.are inju- ved. Qn some soils. the fruit attains a large size, and is very productive of juice ; on others it is more dry and highly flavoured. 'Whiete: the juice is ebundant, but weak, which sometimes happens.in ‘the ‘deep loam of the vallies, dry rich fraits, which are eminént for producing strong ciders, should aldne be chosen : and wher the aspect is unfavourable, or the situation teld and exposed, seems sufficiently evident, that -alt fruits, which do not attain an early maturity, should Be ex: chided: Qn some giavelly soils I have observed the fruit on thé same treeto-tiped very irregularly, afd the cider to be (pros bably in ‘part from thts cause) harsh and rough + these defetts would, ‘E have ind ‘* Dp doubt, 28 doubt, be removed: by planting such fruits only as become ripe rather early in the season, and which are at the same time capable of being long kept, to attain a perfect andregu.ar maturity, without decaying. _ The most common defect in the or- chards of Herefordshire, and the adjoining counties, is the want of a sufficient degree of warmth to bring their fruits to a per- fect state of maturity; for almost all these, ‘having acquired their fame in very warm and fayourable situations, have been trans- ferred from those to others, in which, except in very warm summers, they are never properly ripened. The liquor pro- duced from them is consequently harsh and unpalatable, though it’ frequently possesses, from the nature of the fruit, a considerable degree of strength. The ‘Want ‘29 want: oft favour and ‘richness :is always attributed. to the soil, and I believe almost always unjustly ; for Ido not think Here- fordshire so: much indebted for its fame as a cider country to Any.: peculiarity in it sail, as to. the possession of..a.few very valuable’. varieties of fruit, for. which it appears to be indebted: to.the industry ‘ofthe planters af thélast-century; Those fryitswilt probably soon cease to-exist ; ‘but as good, and perhaps better, ‘hay. be'again producéd ;~ for the skill .of aur forefathers was by 210 micas equal ta their industry, They were ignorant of the sexual systeni of plants, and appear to have been. repartt dess_in what situation, or soil, the seeds they-sowred had been produced; expecting every thing from the richness of the mould in -which . those, and the plants produced from them;. were afterwards placed.” They also entertained great éxpectgtions frota srp5% D 2 the so the use of aromatic ‘infusions; ir which they steeped the scdds, and with which the young plants were .afterwards watered. They. had probably obsetved that the triik and--flesh of animals often retained the- @avour of the herbs on which they fed, and therefore concluded that. the juices of plants and fruits would be affected in similar manner. But the latter, being unprovided with organs.id reduce, origas- tric - juices.to dissolve their Food, receive their nourishment: from végefable’ and anil. substances, enly wmhen these! have een refhucedd nedsly ta:thearfisst painysples by. putmfaction, and whenthey have: lost all specific character. Another erroneous opini- om entertained hy them wai thatianydefect, kither in the flavdur or consistence of the fruits they:had mised, might. be teniedied by the. Kind of stock on arhich they ‘mete $1 —_ _ Thave reagpy ta believe, from considerable experience, - that: their labours generally began where they might as well have ended, and that no permanent change can be -made in. the future produce of the. seeds by any mode of cultivation which can be adopted subsequent to their being taken from the parent tree. Each seed contains the. root, the Jeaves, and germen of a future plant, and is convert- ed into it -by mere evolution; a rich or barren soil affording only.a greater or less Supply of nourishment to it, in its unfolded “state. - The’ growth, of, .thé, young plants, and size of their fruit; will no doubt be greatest in’ rich: soils; but if the trees, or grafts: from. therh, be afterwards planted in’ poor one, I believe the fruit in this will. he, pretisely: what it would have been, ‘had the trees originally grown in it. .I have ‘several times obtained .twa trees by graft- Ds ing ing from 4déilihg *plint of Gav years ON, and plaitted the-one in the garden, arid the other ih the cold clay of a very poor nur- sery. ‘ The “appearance of the ‘former his. always: been the most’ promising, but on takirig grafts from each aftetwards;” F-never could observe the least. différerice in the. ‘branches or Jeaves of the platits; “nor has. ‘the fruit of: several * trees, “which have Bornes been. any way & altered. : The planters of the last’ ccintuty sho. believed that the produce of grafts would. be penmanently. improved _ by -inserting ’ them on stocks . of ‘diffeieht: species, -sinel. ‘afterwards ‘propagating from:ther ; “bet Lam confident that no ‘improvement evey was, or willbe, produced by.’ this practi. They also. attributed: the-dispdsition’ of ‘their-friits to:degentwate, when piopap bred -from seed, rather} td the-dction ofthe awk. * A stock, 33 stotk, than to the strong:.and natural propehsity . of. the -plant to return to it’s. original state. I believe this opinion to be entirely. unfounded, but I cannot assert that. # is 303. and ‘when new kinds are to be obtained from seeds, stocks saised from such cultivated fruits, as grow from cuttings, pefhaps would be more eligi- ble; though the goodness of the fruit is never . When. dirst. began to suspect. that my endeavours to propapate the old: fruits. would -not be. successful; I.sekected the séeds .of. some . of :the best: kinds ‘with an intention to propagate new ones... But I soon found that many of the young plants {particularly those from the Golden Pippin): ‘were Untinty’ as much’discased as the trees. hid rlfuted tfiem+ I several times. naised thee iottidts'fom seeds takens from: 34 from ore apple, and: when ‘this had been produced by a diseased tree, I have had not only as many distinct varieties as there were seeds, but some were much diseased, and others apparently healthy ; though the seeds were sown in the same soil, and the plants afterwards grew withia two feet of each other in the nursery. Grafts having been inserted from each, wetained the habits of the tree from which ’ they were taken. Few, however, if any of them appeared to possess a sufficient - degree of vigour to promise me much success in their cultivation (except in very favourable situations) should their fruit be ‘such as.answered my wishes. . - Having before observed that all the old fruits were free from disease when trained to asouth wall, I thought it not improba- would 35. would be equally healthy. and: that this would not be the sole advantage attend- ing this mode of propagation ; as the trees in this situation would enjoy all the benefits of a better climate, whilst their blossoms, being expanded before those of the ncighr bouring orchards, would escape all chance of being impregnated by the farina of infe» nor kinds.* With a view to try the. cf fects of this experiment, I prepared stocks. of the best kind of apple I knew, which ~ could be propagated, by. cuttings, and after tip anor mt suake ood cl. planting | mucoo Tee comb cend weed boats ;__*. The seience of Botany. is. so. widely ‘extended, that itis scarcely necessary to inform any ‘reader that there are males and females in the‘vegetable, as in dha snimal world, Each blossom of the dpple- abd pear ontains.about twenty. of the former, and five of the latter. I repeated the éxperitnents of Srat- Langan, onthe Hemp plant, and on the Goutd, from-which he has inferred that the sexua} systema, does not extend to these plants. “The result of my experiments does not by any nreans allow me to Cort plimant the Italian Philosopher on his accuracy. 36 planting them agairist ‘a’south wall in ex- tremely rich mould, I grafted them with the Stire, Golden Pippin, and a few other fruits, whose time of ripening suited the si- tuation in which I wished to plant. In the course of the ensuing winter the young ‘trees were dug-up, and (their roots having ‘heen retrenched) .were again planted in the ‘same places. ‘This mode of tredtmient had the desired effeet of-making ‘seme of ‘them’ produce blossoms at two years-old. I suffered only one; of two,.fruits to. re- main on each tree, which in consequence attained nearly three times their common size, with a véry high depree of maturity and perfection; and the appearance of the plants F raised from their seeds, so much excelled any I had formerly obtained ftom the same fruits taken from the orchard, that, F think, F cin confidently. recom- mend t the method Thave adopted. Thad Dee __ chosen 37 chosen fruits possessing excellencies and defects of opposite kinds, with a wish to see, either through the industry of the Bees, or my own, the effects of a process similar to what is called by breeders of ani- mals, crossing the breed. This consists in propagating from males and fema’es not related to each other, and is certainly ne- cessary, in those animas at least in which strength and spirit constitute excellencies, to prevent their degenerating. The expe- riment was easily made, and the singular effects I had seen produced by similar ones on other plants,* left me no reason to doubt * Blossoms of a small white garden Pea, in which the males had previously been destroyed, were im- pregnated with the farina of a large clay-coloured kind with purple blossom. The produce of the seeds thus cbtained were of a:dark gray colour, but these having no fixed habits, were soon changed by cultivation into a numerous variety of very large and extremely luxuriant white ones, which were net ; oaly 38 doubt that some effect would be produced in this. Fhe good, and the ill effects, _ which follow the process of crossing the breeds of plants, are perfectly similar te those which have: been observed anrongst animals. If the male and female be takeri ot from only much larger and more productive than the ort ginal white ene, bot the number of seeds in each pod were increased from sevea-or eight, te eight or nine, ‘and not unfrequently, i in one variety, toten. The newly made gray Kinds’ I found were easily thade white again by impsegnating their blossoms with the farina .of another white kind. in this experiment some of the seeds in the same pod would produce gray, and others white-offepring, as occurs frequently in animals, which bring many young ones at a birth, when the breeds of the male and female are of dif- ferent colours. Superfeetation also readily takes place in the Pea, when the farina of two plants is introdu- ‘ced into the same blossom. The reader may find a paper on this subject in the Philesophical Transactions of 1800. From some very imperfect experiments [ shave made, I am led to suspect that very considera- ble advantages would be found to arise from the use of pew or regenerated varieties of wheat; and these @xe,easily obtained, as this plant readily sports in varieties whenever different kinds are sown together. 89 fzom-two petmanent varieties of different characters, the immediate offspring will - present a mixture of both characters, in nearly an equal proportion; but the pro- peny of this offspring will -be extremely various. Some will take nearly the form of ‘their male, and others of their. female ancestry, and it will’be long before a new permanent character is acquired. In perennial vegetables, the progress of va- riation and degeneracy may be arrested, when an individual answering our wishes has been obtained; as this individual, ‘by the art of the planter and grafter, may be divided and multiplied to almost any extent. My experience induces ‘me to believe that the effects of crossing tend strongly to stimulate the growth of the offspring both of platits and animals; but that amongst animals, crosses should be made only between breeds bearing a good z deal 40 deal of resemblance to each other, of between different families of the same breed. From the open structure of the blossoms of vegetables, and from the numerous tribe of insects which feed on their honey or farina, a sexual intercourse must of necessity take place between neighbouring plants of the same species; and I am much more disposed to attribute this intercourse to the intention than to the negligence of nature. My wishes were, of course, to correct the defects, and to combine the different excellencies of the best fruits; and I was not without hopes that the offspring would possess a greater degree of strength and vigour, as it is known to do in cultivated animals. A few days before the blossoms ex~ panded of the kinds from which I wished : to 41 to propagate, I opened the petals and destroyed the males in all the blossoms ‘which I suffered to remain of one kind; taking great care to leave the females uninjured :. and when these blossoms were fully expanded, I impregnated half of them with farina taken from another kind of fruit, leaving the other half to the care of the Bees; which were collected in great numbers, owing to the scarcity of flowers at that season, and passed busily from one blossom to another. I had soon the satisfaction to observe that every frurt; which I had impregnated, grew rapidly, whilst half of those on the other tree, which had remained.in their natural state, failed; with every one of those left to the care of the Bees. Whence I was disposed to conclude that these insects were not so good carriers of the farina of plants as is, I believe, generally supposed by natu R20 ralists , 42: ralists; but im subsequent experiments,. where the blossoms on the neighbouring trees have been more numerous, I have had reason to. draw a different-conclusion: The plants I have obtained from the fruits,. en which this experiment has been made, are. certainly, much the most promising 1 have yet.seen.. Some. of these seem ta possess. the character of the male parent, athers that of the female; in. some that of both appears blended, and in others, I do not distingush that of either. Whether any of them will remain free from, heredi- tary disease and debility or not,. remains to be proved. Every seed, though seve- ral be taken from the same apple, furnishes a new and distinct variety; and some of these will grow with more luxuriance than - ethers, and the fruits produced by the different plants will possess different de- grees. — ce ee ee. ce 43 grees of merit. An estimate may in some measure, be made of their good and bad qualities at the conclusion of the first summer, by the resemblance the leaves bear to the highly cultivated or wild kinds; as has been remarked by the writers, on this subject, of the last century. The leaf, and general habit, of a seed- ling plant, will, however, by no meane con- vey any correct idea of the merits of the future fruit. Where these have the cha- racter of high cultivation, the qualities of the fruit will be far semoved from those of the native species; but the apple may be insipid or highly flavoured, green or deeply coloured, and of course well or ill calculs- ted to answer the purposes of the planter. An early blossom in the spring, and an early change of colour in the autumnal leaf, would naturally. be supposed to indi- cate a fruit of easly maturity; but I have E 3 never 4h never been able to discover any criterion- of this kind, onwhich the smallest depend- ance can be placed. The leaves of some varieties will become yellow and fall off leaving the fruit green and immature ; and the leaves in other kinds will retain theif verdure long after the fruit has perished.’ ’ The-plants, whose buds in. the annual wood are full and prominent, are usually more: productive than those whose buds are. small and shrunk into the bark; but their future produce will depend. much on the: power the blossoms possess of bearing ‘cold, and this power varies in.the different varieties, and. can only. be known from ex- perience... Those which produce their leaves: and. blossoms. rather. early in. the spring are. generally to be preferred, for though .they are more. exposed. to.injury ‘from frost, they. less.frequently. suffer frana the. 45° thie attacks of insects, the more commom eause of failure: _ Fhe disposition to vegetate early, or late, in the spring, is like almost every; other quality in the apple tree, transferred. in different degrees, to its offspring ; and the planter must therefore seek those qua- lities in the parent. tree,. which he wishes to find in the future seedling plants. The most effective method I have been able ta discover of obtaining sich fruits, as vege~ tate very early in the spring, has been by introducing the farina of the Siberian crab into the blossom of a.sich and.early apple; and by transferring in the same manner the ‘farina of the apple to the blossom of the Siberian.crab.. The.leafand habit of many of the’ plants,, that I have thus obtained, possess: much. of the character of the apple, whilst they. vegstate as early in the spring ? 46 as the crab of Siberia, and appear to pos. sess an equal power of bearing cold. Of the merits of the fruit these will produce, Iam yet unable to speak ; but I have found that the mixture of equal weights of the fruit of the ‘Siberian crab-tree, and of a Fich apple, afforded a produce capable of making fine cider; and I have much rea- son to believe, from a great number of si- miler experiments on vegetables, that the Kquor to be yielded by the produce of the sexual