Hints addressed to proprietors of orchards, and to growers of fruit in general, comprising observations on the present state of the apple trees, in the cider countries. Made in a tour during the last summer. Also the natural history of the Aphis lanata or American blight, and other insects destructive to fruit trees

W'' f-'::^^^?<^^

HINTS

ADDRESSED TO

PROPRIETORS OF ORCHARDS,

&c. &c.

Printed by A. Stralian,
Priutert-Stieet, Leuduu.

HINTS

ADDRESSED TO

PROPRIETORS OF ORCHARDS,

AND TO

GROWERS OF FRUIT
IN GENERAL,

COMPRISING

OBSERVATIONS ON

THE PRESENT STATE OF THE APPLE TREES,
IN THE CIDER COUNTRIES.

MAD£ IN A TOUR DURING THE LAST SUMMER.

ALSO

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE

APHIS LANATA OR AMERICAN BLIGHT, AND OTHER

INSECTS DESTRUCTIVE TO FRUIT TREES.

BY WILLIAM SALISBURY.

A good husbandman salth, be siill doing one good turn or
another unto ihe eanh and the tree, and tliey will do the like
to you againe. Mauon Hustique,

LONDON*.

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND

BROWN, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

And sold by the Author at the Botanic Garden, Sloane-Sueet.

1816.

PREFACE.

T KNOW of no character in private
life that I hold more contempt-
ible than the man who indulges him-
self in finding out faults with which
he takes a pleasure in taunting his
neighbours, and little more do I
esteem those who publish the errors
of others, merely for the purpose of
shewing to the world, that they can
ride through a country with their
eyes open. On the other hand, I
always hold any person excused, if
in his excursions, he observes any
a3

2091 079

VI

palpable errors, and endeavours to
point them out on the pure mo-
tive of shewing how the mischiefs
which result from them, may be avoid-
ed or lessened in their effects. The
latter intention is my only view in
publishing the following hints, and,
as such, I trust, like any other per-
son not accustomed to write for
the press, but who takes up his pen
from similar motives, that I shall
stand excused for any error or want
of that dignified style in which most
of our books, at this period of British
erudition, are published.

The difficulty of seeing our own
errors and the natural inclination
of mankind to shut their ears, when-
ever they are assailed with truths
at variance with their conduct*

Vll

renders the task of pointing out such
faults as are explained in the fol-
lowing pages, a great and arduous
undertaking. In justification for
this intrusion, I must however say,
that the bad state of our apple-trees,
at this time, is the general theme ;
for if we travel in a stage coach, or
mix with company at an inn, or
call at a farm-house, the conver-
sation is found generally to turn to
this point, and mostly ends with the
prediction, that there is no chance
of again seeing a general hit of fruit,
or that cider will ever again be made
in this country as it used to be;
and I have in several instances heard
farmers declare, that the land would
be more valuable if all that was thus
occupied, was turned to any other
mode of culture, for that the apple-
A 4

<

Vlll

trees in their present state, are little
more than an incumbrance on the
ground, as, by preventing a due
circulation of atmospheric fluid, they
render what would otherwise be
good pasturage, sour and unfit for
the food of cattle.

I am by no means so sanguine as
to expect that the hints I have
thrown out will be sufficiently notic-
ed, or the antidote to the mischief
generally applied, being aware of
the length of time it will take to
work a reformation, or to overcome
the prejudices such disappointments
have led to. The extent of labour
necessary to apply any means for
improvement in the present day will
afford the argument " that it falls
to the convenience of few proprie-

tors to use it to its fullest extent,"
to this I readily assent, but at the
same time I must observe, there
are but few who may not avail them-
selves of its benefit to a certain de-
gree, and I am certain that those who
may make the experiment will allow
the following fact, 'Hliat no 7nore
fruit trees should be suffered to groxv
on any farm than can be allowed the
proper management necessary to pro^
mote the ends for which they are in-
tended.^^

The want of the advantage of a
knowledge of entomology among the
growers of fruit, has left us almost
destitute of any acquaintance with
those insects which are found most
noxious to trees in general. But as
this branch of natural history is ad-
A 5

vancins in this a^e of science, and

't? "* — " "»'

as there are persons who are capa-
ble of making the proper investiga-
tion, I trust the time is at hand when
this subject will become the consider-
ation of men who may profit both
themselves and the public thereby.
With a view to excite their atten-
tion to the subject, I have ventured
to publish the following history of a
few of different kinds. At the same
time I am aware of its imperfections,
but nevertheless, should the neces-
sary corrections it requires stimulate
others, who from their avocations
have better opportunities than my-
self, to pursue this subject in a similar
way, I shall have obtained my end,
and I trust with such motives I shall
stand excused in thus having at-
tempted a subject which could have

XI

come much better from more able
hands.

And as it may probably become a
question, how as an individual I
should have had the opportunity of
making the observations which are
contained in the following sheets, or
how a person residing at such a dis-
tance could have bestowed the time
that must be necessary for the pur-
pose ; I must answer, that I have
had occasion for the last four years to
travel those counties more frequently
than falls to the lot of men of my
profession in general. It may also be
remarked, that I have had an in-
terest in the subject greater than most
other persons, who perhaps, with
more enlightened and intelligent
minds than myself, may have visited
A 6

Xll

the same neighbourhood. Having
some time since purchased for the
sake of propagation, the stock of
new fruit trees raised by Mr. Knight,
at Elton, near Ludlow, I have of
course had more than a common rea-
son to make comparisons on the state
of decay of the old varieties of fruits,
with the consequent improvement
of the new ones ; and thus with the
advantage of the honour of the above
gentleman's friendship, together with
a respectable acquaintance in that
county, I have been enabled to give
the public the following remarks, and
should they be the means of stimu-
lating any one to improve this de-
partment of agriculture, I shall feel
myself happy in thus having ren-
dered a benefit to a country where
the hospitality of all ranks of people

Xlll

does them the greatest honour. I
must however remark, that althouo-h
my observations have been made prin-
cipally in Herefordshire, and the ad-
joining counties, lam certain of some
of my remarks being very applicable
to Sussex, and many other parts of this
kingdom, for although some of the
farmers in that county have had good
crops this season*, yet I must ob-
serve that many of their fruit trees
require more attention than they
appear to receive. And should it
fall to the lot of the following pages
to be read by any gentleman inter-
ested therein, the Author entreats
them to reflect, that if all the obser-
vations should not strictly apply, yet

* Several farmers near Petworth have this season
paid their rent by the produce of their orchards !

XIV

both moss and misletoe produce
fertile seeds, and most insects even
the aphis lanata has wings.

Botanic Garden, Sloane-Street,
London, January/ 1816.

The Reader is desired to correct the following

ERRATA.

Page 78, line 12, for it has left read it has some of it left.
70, 23, y;;r fig. 13 rfflrffig. 11.

74, II, for a perfect read an impcrfcct.
89, 14. for pupa read larva.

CONTENTS.

Page
On the nature of Fruit Trees in general ;
the injuries they are liable to, and the
particular attention necessary to be paid
to them, so as to insure health and luxu-
riance of growth - - - 1

On the Culture of Apple Trees in Dwarf
Orchards, as is usual in Guernsey - 33

Of Insects that infest Fruit Trees - 35

The Natural History of the Aphis lanata,
or American blight - - 37

Of the Natural History of the Caterpillars
most destructive to Fruit Trees - 45

Of the Brown-tail Moth, or Phalaena

Phaeorhea - - - 49

Of the Papilio Crataegi, or Black-veined
Butterfly - - - - 55

XVI

Page
The History of the Phalaena Dispar, or
Gypsey Moth - _ - 67

Of the Scarabaeus Melolontha, or Cock
Chafer - . - . 73

Of the Curculio Nucum, or Nut Beetle 85

Of the small Beetle that destroys the bloom
buds of Apple Trees in the spring 90

Of the Ichneumon puparum - - 95

Of the management of Orchard Trees in
general, of the Manures best adapted for
them, and an account of tlie great im-
portation of Apples from France this
season, with a comparative statement of
the present culture in the two countries 99

Of the best kinds of Fruits - - 1 1 7

Cider Apples described - - 119

Of the new Apples raised by Mr. Knight
and other Cultivators - - 126

A general list of Apples worth cultivating
for different purposes, with appropriate

XVll

Page
marks denoting their uses, season of
ripening, &c. &c. - - - 137

Of the Pears best adapted for Perry - 139

A description of some new kinds of Pear
trees - _ _ _ 143

A general list of Pears in cultivation, with
notes denoting such as arc best adapted
for training on walls, with the season of
ripening, &c. - - 146

Of the best varieties of Plums in cultivation,
with marks denoting their culture, &c. 149

Of Filberts and some new varieties of
nuts - - - - 151

Of Apricots - - - 155

A list of Grapes, with their season of
ripening, with the purposes to which each
kind is best adapted, either for the hot-
house, vinery, or open wall ; with an ac-
count of two new varieties raised by
Mr. Knight which are found to be more
hardy than common. - ■• Ibid.

Of Currants - - - 159

XVlll

Page
Of Figs - - - . - 159

Of Rasberries - - - 1 60

Of Strawberries _ - - Ibid.

Of Almonds - _ - _ 161

Of the new Elton Cherry raised by Mr.
Knight - - - 163

Of the Waterloo Cherry - - Jbid.

Of the Black Eagle Cherry - - 164

Of the kinds of Cherries in general culti-
vation, with remarks on their culture Ibid.

Of Peaches and Nectarines, with a list of
their kinds - - - 166

Of a new and cheap mode of protecting
Wall-fruit Trees - - 167

Of the Acton Scott and Downton Peaches
raised by Mr. Knight - - 170

On packing Trees to send to great distances 1 83

Description of Plate I.

No. 1 and 2. The branch and root of an apple
tree with the American blight Aphis Lanata
feeding on it, in its different states, p. 41.

3. The same insect magnified, p. 41.

4. The same magnified still higher and detached

from the nest, p. 41.

5. An insect of the same kind which has ob-

tained wings, p. 4 1 .

6. The Caterpillar of the Black veined Butter-

fly, Papilio Crataegi, p. 55.
7 and 8. The same insect changed into the
Chrysalis state, p. 61.

9. The Butterfly in its perfect state, p. 64.

1 0. The Caterpillar of Phalsena Dispar, Gypsy

Moth, p. 67.

1 1 . The male and female Insect in a perfect

state, p. 70.

';'/ veined nutfer-r/j/

WT^

Description of Plate II.

12. The Eggs of the Cock-chafer, Scarabceus

Melolantha, p. 73.

1 3. The Larva or Grub in its first state, p. 74.

14. The same Grub at one year old, p. 75.

15. The same at the second year of its growth,

p. 75.

16. The same insect three years from the egg,

p. 76.

1 7. The same in the Chrysalis state as it changes

the fourth year, p. 78.

18. The Chafer as it appears first emei'ging from

the earth, p. 80.

19. The holes in the ground denoting their

breeding-place, p. 80.

20. The perfect Chafer in a sitting posture, p. 80.

21. The perfect Chafer as it appears flying,

p. 80.

22. A branch of a Filbert Tree to exhibit the

Nut Beetle, Curculio Nucum^ p. 85.

23. The Larva as it is fomid within the nut

when stretched out, p. 89.

24. The same curled up and changing into

the pupa state, p. 89.

25. The female Beetle, p. 90.

26. The male do. p. 90.

27. The pupa of the Brown-tail Moth, after

it is attacked by the Ichneumon, p. 95.

28. The Ichneumon Fly of its natural size, p. 98.

29. The same magnified, p. 98.

A. The Beetle that destroys the bloom-bud of

the Apple-tree in the spring, p. 90.

B. The same in the larva state, p. 91.

C. The Chrysalis of the same, p. 92.

■^-9

ON THE NATURE OF FRUIT-TREES IN GENERAL,
THE INJURIES THEY ARE LIABLE TO, AND THE
PARTICULAR ATTENTION NECESSARY TO BE
PAID TO THEM, SO AS TO ENSURE HEALTH,
VIGOUR, AND LUXURIANCE OF GROWTH.

ERE a person to ask of any one

who had been viewing human nature
only through a common medium, the
question, " What a man was ?" The
following, or some such, would naturally
be the answer : He is a being possessing
life, motion, and will ; he walks upright,
and has many peculiar propensities ; the
most predominant of which are, that he is
always sensibly alive to the slightest in-
jury, and particularly fond of good eating
and drinking. But were I to ask the
same question of a skilful surgeon, he

B

would answer me that he was a subject
composed of a number of very curious
materials, put together in the most artifi-
cial manner, and formed into muscles,
fibres, arteries, veins, nerves, blood, &c.&c.
so nicely contrived to act in unison, that
from his birth to his death, a never ceas-
ing motion and circulation is kept up.
So that, when viewed in this light, he ex-
hibits a system of mechanism which
appears wonderful even to the most en-
lightened artist. The dependence of all
which parts upon one another are so con-
nected, that the whole becomes diseased
from the slightest injury being given to
any one part, be it ever so minute.

Now, was the same question put to
the generality of persons as to their
knowledge of an apple or pear tree, they
would answer, that it was composed of
leaves, branches, trunk, roots, &c. ; that
it had a tendency to increase in size,
and, like a man, it was fond of nourish-
ment, and throve most in such soils as
suited it best. But, were I to put the
same question to one who had considered

the subject philosophically, he would
answer, that it was an organic body pos-
sessing life, and, in a certain degree,
motion ; tliat it was composed of vessels,
through which circulated a liquid similar
to the blood in animals, and, in fact, was
in a great degree so nearly allied to ani-
mal existence, as to be liable to disease
when any interruption took place in the
circulation of this fluid, and which might
in some instances be produced by what
would appear, at first, but trifling in-
juries.

Although I am far from thinking that
this subject will ever be fully considered
by the persons who are the most inter-
ested in the growth of fruit-trees, or
that the theory I have hinted will ever
be perfectly believed ; yet I will endea-
vour to illustrate it farther, as it may be
the means of convincing some of my
readers how necessary it is to pay more
than the usual attention that this interest-
ing subject receives in the present day,
being fully persuaded that nothing but a
thorough investigation can ever lead us
B 2

into the mode of treatment which is cer-
tainly necessary, if we ever liope to see
our cyder counties regain tliat celebrity
which for many years has so much de-
clined as to be now nearly extinct.

A tree we shall then endeavour to
consider as one of those bodies formed
by nature, and as a link of that grand
chain on which the welfare of the world,
and all that it inherits, depend. It is com-
posed of roots which terminate in small
fibres, and these are furnished with tubes
that attract and take up the food of the
plant from the earth ; and these tubes
being extended upwards into the trunk
of the tree, are found to exist in the
softer parts of the wood, known to
botanists by the name of alburnum^ but
which is more familiarly distinguished in
the oak and other timber trees by the
name of sap-xcood.

It has always been a subject of dispute
with naturalists as to what constituted
the true pabulum or food of vegetables,
and it would be foreign to our subject to
pretend to explain its composition j but

be this food composed of vvliat it may,
whether it differs in its kind as to the
tree taking it up, by which each plant
selects a peculiar sort or not, (a subject of
investigation for the curious,) it will suf-
fice for our purpose to know that it is
conveyed in a liquid state, and that it is
raised up through the above-described
vessels by the assistance of other tubes
filled with air, wliich becoming rarefied
by heat, act on the sap-vessels, and pro-
pel this liquid upwards. The sap, after
it has passed through the trunk and
branches, enters the leaves through the
footstalk, when it is exposed to the action
of the sun and light, and here it is ob-
served to be filtered, concocted, and
separated. The upper side of the leaf
receives the rays of the sun, and the
lower side, composed of pores, is the or-
gan of perspiration, which has been found
to be very copious in trees. And here
the extraneous parts being thrown off,
the finer are rendered fit for passing into
other tubes, which descend also througii
the footstalk. This finer fluid, returning
B 3

through the inner bark, deposits a sub-
stance which becomes wood, and is found
to be attached in layers round the trunk.
These may be seen in trees cut trans-
versely asunder, and from which the age
of the trees, in many instances, can be
ascertained. There is also supposed to
be another deposit made of a quantity of
the same finer fluid, which is laid up at
the end of the season for the purpose of
being forced upwards in the spring ; and
this is supposed to be employed in form-
ing the blossom-buds for the production
of fruit, which, considered scientifically,
is nothing more than the pulp, afford-
ing protection to the seeds, which are
ultimately formed for the wise intention
of re-producing the species, and of ferti-
lizing the earth for the use of animal life
and existence.

Having, therefore, ventured into an
examination of the different parts of a
tree on the principles of vegetation, and
how each are rendered subservient to
its growth, it naturally leads us to the
consideration, how much a body of so

fine a texture becomes liable to injur)-,
and how small an interruption of the pro-
gress of the sap, in a young tree, may lay
the foundation of maladies of which it
can never recover ; but, like an infant
child which has imbibed the seeds of dis-
ease from neglect and bad nursing, only
lives to linger out its period of exist-
ence in pain to itself and without benefit
to its fellow-creatures. Now, when we
consider the bad effects caused on the
human body by contusions which pro-
duce s vvellingF and gangrene, arising from
the circulation of the blood in its vessels
being checked, we may suppose similar
bad effects to be produced from any stop-
page of the natural circulation on which
the health and existence of all kinds of
trees so materially depend. Injuries of
this sort may be caused in various ways,
for instance, by the bark and wood be-
coming bruised from any accidental blow;
by too tightly tying tlie stem or larger
branches for training, &cc. ; by sheep and
other animals being permitted to rub
themselves against the stems, whereby
B 4

they deposit an oily substance which
stops up the pores of the bark ; and, by
the stems being gnawed or otherwise
bruised, the trees being unprotected and
unscreened from such depredations. It
cannot, therefore, be thought wonderful
that our young trees, when planted out
in the usual mode, whether in fields or
orchards, should be subject to diseases of
all kinds, as such neglected treatment
naturally exposes them to injuries of all
kinds.

It is an axiom that holds true through-
out all nature, that great evils arise firom
smaller ones, and thus w^e trace causes
from effects ; the greatest crimes which
the human mind and heart has ever per-
petrated, had their origin in the un-
checked licentious principles of the youth-
ful mind of the malefactor. And many
diseases, of the most dreadful sort, are
brought on by degrees, and have their
origin in the neglect of stopping those
irregularities to which we are prone in
our youth, and which produce in early life
languor similar to old age. And effects

peiiectly similar are to be observed in the
vegetable world. An apple-tree deprived
of its bark by an incision being made in
the form of a ring round a fruit-bearing
brancli, causing the descent of the re-
turning sap to be prevented, produces
prematurely ripe fruil, and the small
crumpling codlings are ripened from a
similar cause, and which may justly be
termed an early old age in this part
of the tree. Thus, as accident produces
disease, disease produces debility, which
furthers the operation of ripening ; and
in this state the fluid of the trees under-
goes a chemical change, producing a sac-
charine substance as its result. In which
state it attracts and becomes the food of
those numerous insects with which the
great Author of nature has, for the wisest
of purposes, stored every part of our
globe : and here we must look up with
wonder to that Almighty Being, in whose
works we never see a link deficient, but
a continual reproduction of matter, formed
on the decay of other natural bodies, and
which, like the circulation of the blood,
B 5

10

or the apparent movements in the hea-
venly bodies, never cease to operate, but
flow in constant succession for the pur-
pose of support and regeneration.

On the other hand, let us turn our at-
tention to a fruit tree, and consider how-
dangerous it must be to the growth of so
nicely contrived a body, to have a blow
given to it by which any of those necessary
sap or blood-vessels are destroyed j or
if we permit moss, missletoe, and other
parasitical plants, to grow and feed on
the sap which is essentially necessary for
its support * ; or how it must be affected
if numerous insects are allowed to live
and prey on its very vitals. And still
more so if the whole connection of the

♦ " The age of a tree will make it full of mosse ;

" and if it be young, then too much moisture will

'* make it mossie, as also too much drynesse. This

" disease feedeth upon a tree, and maketh it leane,

" as the scab do a beast. To remedie this, as has

" been said before, is to make it cleare in winter

" with a knife of wood or bone, for fear that the

" mosse continuing in peace may devoure the whole

" tree." Maison Ruftique, p. 402.

n

sap-\ cssels were entirely cut asunder at
the fountain head, by removing a tree
after it has grown ten or more years in
the same ground, where its roots have
extended to a very considerable distance,
and the fibres, the only part lit to take
up nourishment in any quantity, lopped
entirely from the main roots ; and that
this tree is, in its stumped state, stuck
into a hole, probably of clay or stiff soil,
just large enough to hold the roots in, the
soil hlled into the hole, and this perhaps
in old pastures, where the herl3age is
left to grow quite round the stem of the
tree, and where it is left for sheep and
cattle to rub against the stem, by which
means the tree is liable to be shaken
irom its position, and the pores of the
bark quite filled by the oil and filth of
their coats. Or, if planted in arable land,
it is left to sutler every time the plough'
passes, the geer of that implement to be
continually ratthng against the stem ;
and a heavy crop of grain, perhaps
wheat, growing closely round it, not
only robbing the soil of that nourishment
B 6

12

which the roots of the tree was destined
to have, but also preventing either mois-
ture to reach tlie roots, or the tree itself
to have the benefit of the atmosphere.

Having made these observations, I
vshall now leave this investigation to any
one who has opportunity of judging how
far the state of the trees, and the mode
of management in the cyder counties,
agrees with it, and should wish any one
to compare this with the culture of fruit
in the county of Kent, where every year
some trees bear, even if the crop in ge-
neral should fail elsewhere.

From having considered the nature of
many of our fruit plantations, and find-
ing, for want of the necessary care, that
the young trees, after being planted, are
subject to injury for want of proper treat-
ment ; it becomes the next business to
point out such modes in the planting and
after-management, as will be most likely
to insure a healthy growth.

The first thing that attracts our at-
tention in this department of the busi-

1,

ness is, the clioice of tlie tree itself;
and here it siiould be observed, tliat the
younger it is wlicn removed into the or-
chard, tlie better chance there is of get-
ting it to grow. As the fibres, or young
roots, are the only parts capable of at-
tracting from the soil the food necessary
to sustain tlie plant, those trees that can
be taken up easily from the nurseries,
without damaging this essential part,
should alwaysbe planted ; and as this is not
easily to be accomplished, if such trees are
large and of great age, young trees mjist
be considered as preferable to old ones
for forming orchards.

I am fully aware that farmers in gene-
ral say that young trees, on account of
their small size, are unfit to plant in
open and bleak situations, and in places
where orchards are usually planted, and
I hold the reason to be in some measiure
just ; but I am writing with the hope,
that when trees are put into such places,
they will be })roperly protected from the
many injuries to which they are liable in
the present mode. However, if it should

14

be necessary to plant trees with large
stems, it should be })articularly managed
that they should not be allowed to grow
more than two years together in tlie nur-
sery, without being taken up, and the
roots trimmed short with a view to cause
them to put out fresh ones, and produce
fibres, so that whenever the tree is to be
removed into the orchard where it is to
remain, it may have such roots as will,
in some measuie, give it a chance of
growing. It is proper at the same time
to observe, that the younger a tree can
be planted out where it is to remain, the
better, for even in the different oper-
ations of removing it as above in the
nursery, and shortening the roots, there
is a great chance that it may receive an
injury which may prove fatal to it.

It is a practice in Worcestershire and
Herefordshire, to plant crab trees, or
seedling apples, found by chance in
hedge-rows and other places, of a large
size, and even after they havebeen growing
in the same place for ten or twelve years,
and the roots have extended to the

15

length of several feet. When taken out
of the ground, tliese are necessarily shor-
tened so far that nothing hke a root is
left, and perhaps only a few branches,
like horns, to which the roots were at-
tached, bnt which were lopped off in the
taking up. This tree is then planted
in the ground, where it remains two or
three years before it begins to vegetate ;
it is then despoiled of its head, if it has
been fortunate enough to get one, and
grafted, after which it is left to take its
chance, subject to all the danger and in-
vasion of insects, the common accidents
attending the culture of the land, if
arable, or if in pasture fields, to the inju-
ries of cattle. I have no particular ob-
jection to the planting crab-stocks, and
afterwards grafting them, because I would
not wisli to reject any old custom, unless
it was manifestly absurd, but at all
events, it must be no less than so much
time lost, for if the tree was grafted
when young, it might, after planting, be
suffered to grow without taking off its
head j a practice, which although it

16

may not be attended with any seriouf*
injury to the s'ock, cannot possibly do it
any real service. One pailicidar regard-
ing tlie propriety of tlie apple stock for
grafting, seems in the present day wholly
disregarded, and that is, the kinds of
fruit from whence they are raised ; if
seedling stocks are found near farm
buildings in the cyder counties, they
should be looked on with a cautious eye
by the planter, for it is ten to one, if it
is not the produce of some improved
variety of the apple kind ; and it is to be
observed, that these improved varieties
are more tender in their constitution than
the true seedling crabs, v*'hose wood is
of slower growth, and, consequently, of
closer texture, so that they can resist
the injuries trees are liable to, better
than those from the apples.

In the county of Sussex, there is an
apple called the Bittersweet, tlie fruit
of which makes a weak, but pleasant
cyder, and the wood of which will readi-
ly grow from cuttings ; this we use for
making stocks to graft a])ples on for

17

bearing as small trees, and similar to what
are termed Paradise stocks. These are fit
for small gardens, but the state of health
of the stock should be attended to, other-
wise an unhealthy produce is the con-
sequence.

Paradise stocks and seedling apples, it
should be remarked, are more subject to
injury from insects than crabs are, owing
to the different state of the sap ; that of
the apple being sweeter than that of the
crab. A large quantity of seedling apples
and crabs mixed, which I have now
growing, are more or less attacked by
different insects, as the kind approaches
the apple or crab in its nature. It may
be observed that dwarf trees, i. e. trees
with short stems, such as we find usually
in gardens, are more healthy, and pro-
duce fruit better than standard trees in
orchards, and are seldom known to fail
of producing fruit, even when none are
to be seen in orchards ; and this is ac-
counted for from the stem of the trees
being short, they are not so liable to the
same damage as those of standards, and for

18

this reason, if a tree is by accident bro-
ken ofl' short in one of its upper branches
just above another, the lower one takes
the lead, and gets what sap the other
has not room to take up.

Old trees are frequently met with both
in orchards and gardens, which have
ceased bearing from some cause or other,
and it is usual to cut such down and de-
stroy them. If the stems of these are
sound, be they never so large, there
is a chance of making them turn to
good account by grafting other new
sorts on them. I uiention this as it is
not generally known, and I have seen,
in Somersetshire, an orchard entirely
thrown up by a clergyman, who had
lately taken to the glebe on which it
grew, and the land replanted with young
trees. Now, it is very probable, if that
gentleman had known the advantage
of grafting his old trees, he would
have done so, and these would, in three
years time, have had a crop more than
equal to the first twenty of his young or-
chard J besides the risk of ever getting

19

his young trees to bear well, in the pre-
sent mode in which orchards are gene-
rally managed.

As to the soil, it is a generally re-
ceived opinion, that fruit trees removed
from a rich soil into a poor one, are not
likely to succeed. That they will not
grow so luxuriantly in a poor soil as a
rich one, is a truism ; but it more fre-
quently happens that trees removed out
of well managed nursery land, although
it is poor of itself, into fields of better
soil, will fail from the want of such en-
couragement as they have been accus-
tomed to, previous to their removal. The
preparation of land in nursery grounds
is, to trench it generally three feet deep,
or to such depth as the land will warrant,
observing to reverse the stratum, by lay-
ing the surface in the bottom ; the
stocks which are intended for making
trees, are then planted in rows at con-
venient distances, and the land kept
particularly clean from weeds, and re-
peatedly turned on the surface, or dug
with a spade ; and in this mode we

QO

tisually get our young stocks fit io graft
in two years, and in two, or probably
three years more, to become fine stan-
dard trees, sufficiently large for orchard
planting ; and, in fact, if they are suf-
fered to remain longer, unless repeatedly
removed, as above described, the root
generally becomes too old for the tree to
be transplanted with success.

In the manner in which we have seen
the generality of orchards formed, a hcle
is made two or three feet in diameter,
and probably as deep, and this perhaps
in a stiff clay, or holding soil, in which
the tree is planted, and if meadow *, the
grass is suffered to grow all over the
land, even to the stem of the tree ; or, if
arable, the crop covers all the land in a
similar manner ; and thus the tree is left
without the advantage even of having

* In a meadow newly planted as orchard, near
Ludlow, I observed the grass not having grown
over where the holes had been made for the trees,
the proprietor had endeavoured to husband this
part of his land, by planting beans verj' thick on
all the spaces; and a fine croj) there was, but it
was certainly at the poor ap])le trees' expense.

21

the surface of the land kept free from
herbage, wliich not only feeds on the Uuid,
but in a great measure prevents the tree
from receiving the moisture so necessary
to its growth. Let any one now contrast
tlie change of scene the plant is doomed
to endure, even with all the advantages
of good roots, and consider if it has a
fair chance of succeedino;.

When land is intended to be converted
into orchard, the places where the trees
are to stand, should, as soon as conveni-
ence will admit, be marked, and for
the space of six feet over, the ground
should be trenched as deep as the soil
will admit it, and the longer this is done
before planting the better ; and even so if
it becomes necessary to take a crop off
the land in the mean time, previously to
planting *. If the nature of the situation

* It would appear strange to any person who
understood a little of agriculture, and who had but
lately arrived in this country, if he were to view
the present state of our orchards, particularly if
he had read any description of this subject that was

century or rrore old. I have in my library an

22

should be too wet, it sliould, if possible,
be drained, and if not, hillocks should
be thrown up, and the trees planted high
on them in proportion to the wetness of
the soil; and this may be done by remov-
ing some af the surrounding soil, or by
bringing earth from another place. The
scovvering of ditches, and, in general, the
scraping of roads, is good, and in parti-
cular for mixing in such places where
the land is very stiff. The trees should
be planted in the centre of each place so

old work translated from the French, entitled Mai-
son Rustique, or the Countrey Farme, and which
was newly corrected and augmented by Gervase
Markham in 1616 ; as it contains more on this sub-
ject than any thing I have seen of a later date, I
shall make a few extracts from it, as they may
occur, mostly for the purpose of shewing the
growers of fruit, the pains our forefathers took
with their trees. Were Mr. Gervase Markham
alive, and to ride through the cyder counties of
Great Britain in the summer season, I think he
would either go mad, or suppose himself to be the
only sane man who had any interest in this subject
in this country. Neither should I be more sur-
prised, if, in the aphis lanata, he recognized an old
acquaintance, although each of them had taken a
long 7iap in the mean time.

25

summer months, and in the autumn and
trenched * ; and this space should after-
wards, for some years at least, h"^ kept
clean t by being frequently hoed t in the

* *' And if the case so stand as it is fit to plant
" great thicke trees, the pit must be made six
•' months before, and that because tlie earth should
" thereby be corrected, antl as it were renewed by
" the ayre and heat.

" He that will have faire young trees, must dig
*•' about them everie month, but when they are
" grown greater, they must only be digged about
'* twice a year. In wii ter, whetlier they be great
" or small, the earth must be taken from their feet,
" so that it may be mingled with dung and put
" into the pit againe." jNIaison Rustique, p. 402.

f " Weeds growing about trees, doe sucke tlie
" nourishment of the earth, and they must be care-
" fully weeded out.

" The apple loves to be digged twice, especially
" the first yeare. It is very subject to be eaten
" and spoyled of pismires and little worms, but the
" remedy is to lay swine's dung mixed with men's
" urine at the roots." Maison Rustique, p. 379.

J Hoeing land gives it a natural manuring, even
if no weeds are on the ground, for the oftcner and
deeper the surface is turned up, the more it attracts
food from the atmosphere.

21.

spring dug ^vith a spade, turned over,
and left as rough as possible, observing
not to injure the roots ; by this operation
the growth of tlie tree will be encou-
raged. After the two first years, the
tree, if thrifty, will have pushed its roots
to the extremity of the limited piece of
trenched land ; and then it will be ad-
visable to trench round the extremity
three feet wider, as the roots by this
means will have a fresh field to work in,
and the growth be accelerated thereby; an
opportunity is also by this mode afforded
to the proprietor, to give any stimulus
he may have at hand, by way of manure,
and thus to forward the growth by that
means also.

When trees are planted out where
they are to remain, it is essentially ne-
cessary that they are supported against
the roots being shaken by the wind, and
also protected from any injuries they are
liable to, as above described, which may
be done in the best and most convenient
mode that circumstances will admit of.

«5

I am not an advocate for tying any such
things as furze, thorns, or the Hke, round
the stem, as it affords much shelter for
insects of all kinds that infest trees,
therefore, if it can be done so as to
leave the whole more exposed to the in-
fluence of the sun and air, it is so much
the better.

Pruning trees is a subject, respecting
which every gardener pretends to have
a competent knowledge, and those who
have written on the subject have endea-.
voured to lay down rules for the operation:;
which may be expected from me in this
place ; but I must confess, that although
I have had considerable experience for
many years, and I know the theory on
which rules for it may be formed, yet I
am incapable of communicating my ideas
on the subject, as it wholly depends
on the state of the trees ; and it would
be as absurd for me to tell any one
what branches he should cut out and
what leave, from description, as it would
be for a physician to prescribe for a pa-
tient who labours under a severe and
c

26

acute disease, on the mere report of the
nurse, without a personal inspection
into the state of his patient. I must
be pardoned therefore, if I say, that
nothing but experience, founded on
long observation, as to the growth of
trees, will ever enable a person to dis-
cover the proper art of pruning. In
fact, it would be a detraction fi'om the
real merits of gardeners, many of whom
are persons of much skill in this subject,
acquired by close attention, if it were
considered as capable of being acquired
by half an hour's reading.

One observation should be attended to,
which is founded on facts : that is to
say, although it is certain, that nature is,
in every case, sufficiently bountiful in all
her works, we do not find any exuberance ;
and in our assistance, which we endea-
vour to give her in this way, we should
keep in mind, that every branch in a
fruit tree, more than is wanted, is a great
waste of nature's purest material employed
in the formation of fruit and wood, and
therefore if the branch is skilfully taken

27

away, the sap will be sure of being em-
j)loyed to some other good purpose ; for
every useless branch, like every noxious
weed, should be put out of existence.
When we turn our attention to the first
principles of vegetation, we observe, that
the roots of every tree are intended to im-
bibe from the soil a certain quantum of
food, which is taken into the tree to form
its different parts, and in so doing a
limited quantity is prescribed to each
kind. The traveller's joy, which grows
very quickly, and is supported by other
plants, does not require, nor in fact has
it, so much, as the hazel on which it
is supported. Neither does the rasp-
berry, which only exists in its lignoeus
or tree state for a few^ months, require
that quantity which the oak tree does, that
is to last for ages. For if we compare
them together, we shall find, on cutting
pieces of each transversely, that of the
raspberry to consist only in a mass of pith,
surrounded by a thin cylinder of fibrous
membrane just enough to enable it to
stand upright, and support the fruit. The
c ^

!28

traveller's joy \vc sliall find in hollows like
network, the hazel will exhibit an appear-
ance of soundness, but in the oak will be
seen almost solidity. Let the speculative
pruner take a view of this])icture, and ask
himself if he has sufficiently studied this
subject to imitate nature, by leaving just so
much as is necessary to form fruit, but to
be cautious at the same time of })reventing
a waste of so precious a material, which
is thus so curiously husbanded by nature
itself. When this theory is fairly under-
stood, we shall be enabled to prune,
or in other words, to give a check to
luxuriant growth, and to assist vegetation
with propriety.

It may not be altogether foreign to the
present subject to contemplate that de-
preciation in abilities of a number of
gardeners, which has so much lessened
the respectability of that useful set of
men. To obtain the knowledge neces-
sary for a gardener requires the exeirtions
of an ingenious mind for many years, as
well as that of an industrious and active
body, for without great mental and bodily

29

labour, tlie necessary knowledge of the
business he has under his care cannot be
acquired ; and although among the great
mass of men who are exercising this
business, some are to be found of this de-
scription, yet a great number know much
less than they ought to know; and the
consequence fora length of time, has been
the loss of reputation to that profession
collectively, and the general bad manage-
ment that is to be seen where a variety of
gardeners have lived.

Let us hope, then, for the general good,
that some measures may be adopted that
will give the proper advantage to those
who have spent their youth in this
pursuit, arrd to secure them the prefer-
ence of employment over those persons
who were so long ago complained * of
by some of our countrymen, justly
celebrated for their abilities in horticul-
ture.

* " There area sort of men who call themselves
" gard'?iers ; and of them, not a i'cw, who having
•'' wrought at labouring work at the new making of

c 3

so

There is nothing of greater moment,
to a large establishment in particular,
than the good abilities of the gardener,
for otherwise good trees are soon irrepar-
ably injured, and the profession gets
a bad reputation in consequence ; but
gardening is not the only instance we have
known to have suffered from similar
causes, even that of the law has, within
our recollection, found it necessary to
protect its practice from similar inno-
vation, by getting an act passed for lay-
ing heavy duties on the indtjction, suffi-
cient to cause all that could not afford to
have the necessary education and the re-

" some groztnd, or in a garden, and after the young
«' beginner hath exercised the barrow or the spade
<* for twelve months, he puts on an apron and sets
" up for a professed gardener ; and a place he must
*' have : he hears of some honest country gentleman,
" who is in London, and wants a gard'ner, he goes
t' to him and lulls him his story, of what great mat-
" ters he is capable of, and such a piece of work he
" managed ; and by this means he gets into em-
" ployment, and this is sufficient to shew how the
** gentleman gets imposed on." Vid. London and
Wise, zd Edition, 1699.

31

quisitc qualiHcations, to kecj) out, which
has tended no less to the increasing re-
spectabihty of that honourable and learn-
ed profession, than to tlie comfort and
safety of the lives and property of all
of us.

From the increase of accidents and
maladies occasioned in the army and
navy during a long series of warfare,
a great number of young men are em-
ployed as assistant siu'geons, &c. with
very slender medical knowledge, from
which circumstance, similar evils have of
late also crept into that profession, and so
much so, that it was found necessary, last
sessions, to pass a bill in i)arliament, to
prevent any person in future from prac-
tising as an apothecary, unless he had
studied all its departments sufficiently,
and could produce testimonials of proper
qualifications, which must, of course,
have the effect of keeping down the
number of irregular })ractition'jrs, and
thus render the profession more re-
spectable.

This digression is made only with a
c 4

S2

view of shewing what good has been
done, and is still to be hoped for, from
proper regidations like the above. Would
to God, that the ability and respectability
of the practice of gardening could be
secured in some similar manner, we
might then expect to eat of the best pro-
duce of the soil, and our trees to bring
forth good fruit in abundance.

In the islands of Jersey and Guernsey,
which are noted for the produce of all
kinds of fruit, which we have in gardens or
orchards, the trees are planted dwarf, and
comparatively close together, by which
means, a greater quantity of fruit is grown
on a given piece of land; those are usually
grafted on Paradise stocks, and the trees
begin to produce in three years abund-
antly, even when they are not more than
four or five feet high, and the whole
diameter of the extent of branches not
more j in such cases, it is usual to give up
the land principally to this purpose, and
plant the trees in rows ten feet apart,
and five feet distance in the rows. The

ss

laiul between the rows may be cultivated
with lucerne to considerable advantage
during the first few years of the growtli,
i. e. four drills, may be sown at a foot apart,
and then it leaves three feet on each side
for the trees to grow. As the plant
requires garden culture, and must be
hoed, manured, and dug, the apple-
trees are receiving advantage at the
same time ; as the trees increase in bulk,
every other one in the row^s is taken up
and planted where it is wanting, and the
culture of the lucerne crop discontinued.
An improvement on this mode of growing
a dwarf orchard was some years ago
adopted by J. Tyson, Esq. of Drovo-house
near Chichester, by putting in four hop-
])oles at right angles four or five feet
distant, and tying the tops in so as to
form a pyramid, the branches of the
trees, after having grown sufficiently long,
are then pruned of the superfluous wood,
and trained so as to cover the surface
round com])letely with bearing wood, and
I have witnessed in this mode the great-
<f^st cro})s I ever saw in my life, and few
c 5

34

persons wlio have not seen this mode,
can calculate on the many advantages
it possesses. Not the least of which is,
that the sun and air have room, from the
uniformity in size of these trees, to cir-
culate freely through the whole. It
should be observed, that it is attended
with little trouble and expence after the
first time of tying, excepting that of
going over the trees and thinning the
wood every winter. I cannot help think-
ing, but this mode, were it introduced
into our cyder counties, might be pro-
ductive of much good; I have myself,
here, made an experimental orchard on
this plan, and on one quarter of an acre
of ground I have two hundred and forty
trees growing, the area of whose sur-
faces, taken collectively, amounts to
nearly as much as that of the whole
ground. It has now been planted four
years, and the trees are in full bear-
ing. Thus the land is become valuable
as a fruit orchard, in less time than the
generahty of orchard-planters can get
their stocks to take fair root in, besides

35

their liaving to undergo tlie process of
grafting as before described. This is
a fact of Mliich any one is at liberty
to convince himself, if he pleases, by
ocular demonstration. The foregoing
remarks will a})ply generally to all trees
usually planted in orchards, and it is
not my intention to enter farther into the
subject, as trees in gardens have, under
proper management (which is unfortu-
nately not always the case) all the ad-
vantages which it has been my wish to
give to those in orchards. I shall close
these hints with giving descriptions of a
few of our most noxious insects, and par-
ticularly such as are injurious to fruit and
other trees in this country.

Of injuries arising to fruit-trees from
insects of various kinds, w-e have many
examples, and we are far, \'ery far from
having a perfect knowledge of their
nature. However, we know that some
species of them appear only in certain
seasons when the weather is very favours-
able for their hatching and existence.
As we are so much at a loss in these
c 6

36

points, we have much to regret that
the science of entomology is not more
cultivated, as many facts would be ascer-
tained, leading to conclusions that might
ultimately enable us to destroy or retard
the baneful progress of these natural
enemies to plants ; and it ought not to
be forgotten that an acqziaintance toith our
common nojvious insects is a subject of
as mitch interest to the grower qfjhdt-
Irees, and ought to be as intimately con-
nected in this branch of husbandry ^ as
the necessary knowledge qfcojm and cattle
is to farmers in general.

The aphis or small green fly which is
so common in the spring of the year, and
which produces the honey-dew, is to be
destroyed by burning tobacco or any
strong scented leaves or rubbish under
the trees, or by sprinkling them with
water in which tobacco has been infused,
and although this may appear to be a
work of much labour when the trees are
large ; yet in young trees it will repay
the trouble.

But the most destructive insect we know

57

is the white bug, described by a foreign na-
turahst under the name of apliis lanata, or
American blight which has found means,
within a few years, of extending itself
all over the kingdom, and is every season
gaining ground. Various are tiic opinions
respecting this insect, both as to its nature
as well as its production. I have long con-
sidered it to be the same insect that has
of late years infested the poplars and the
larch, and have lately been borne out
in my opinion, as it has left the a])ple-trees
and begun to make ravages on the plum,
and also on a species of the ranunculus
which libund growing close to somea})ple-
trees in the neighbourhood of Worcester.
As I have for some years past paid parti-
cular attention to this insect I shall give a
detail of its history as it has occurred to
me, which may probably stimulate some
person to discover a remedy for its dread-
ful ravages. It docs not appear to hatch at
any particular season, but all the while
the weather is open it continues its work
of reproduction ; the eggs (which are ex-
tremely minute, and must be observed

with the as'^istaiice of the microscope)
are laid amongst the white cotton-Hke sub-
stance in which the insect is enveloped,
and which it also deposits on the
bark of tlie trees. I liave from good
authority heard it was brought to this
country by the refugees from France, in
the reign of Louis XIV., when a colony
of these people settled at Paddington,
and there it was first observed to begin its
depredations on the apple trees: I am led
to think that it is a native of a warmer
climate than ours, from the circumstance
that the living insects as v/ell as the eggs
remaining on the branches of tlie trees are
frequently killed by the action of frost,
which was the case in the winter of
1813, a season in which I had them con-
tinually imder my notice, and I trust that
it has afforded me an o})portunity of
giving the world a cheap mode of destroy-
ing them, or at least of retarding their
progress.

I am, in some measure, warranted in my
belief that the insect in question was in-
troduced from France, as an old French

39

gardener who worked in my garden seve-
ral years ago stated that he was well ac-
quainted v.ith tlie bug as lie termed it,
since his childhood, and that it had been
the destruction of man}' fruits, not apples
in particular, in the neighbourhood of
Montpelier, where he was [)rouglit up.
He also suggested that tlie frost of our
severe winters migiit be the means of
killing it, from its being, in his opinion,
originally a native of a warmer climate :
this caused me to pay attention to its ha-
bits, and I soon found that in the cold of
our winters it usually disappeared, al-
though there was the appearance of some
of it among the cracks in the bark, but
not so much as in the summer weather.
I therefore had recourse to scraping the
outer bark and washing the trees over
with soap suds, and solutions of lime, soot,
and sul])]mr ; and although from the above
treatment, or the operation of the brush,
they were in great measure killed or their
progress lessened, yet I was mortified
greatly to find that every spring they were
quickly renewed.

40

My surprise however was soon lessened,
when on examining the roots of the apple-
trees I found there existed a progeny,
which in all probability served every
season to renew the stock, and I therefoi'e
turned my attention to this point which
led me to the following expedient. I
took ofifi during the frost, the branches of
apple trees on which there had been great
abundance of the insect, and found, by the
use of the magnifier, that the eggs were
discoloured and incapable, to all appear-
ance, of producing young. At the same
time I searched the roots of the same
trees, and there I found not only eggs but
Jiving insects, and had them moving
under the lens in a few minutes after be-
ing taken into a warm room.

In order to illustrate this fact I had a
drawing made of the roots with the insect
attached to it, as I have considered it of
considerable moment to give as perfect an
account of it as my labours have afforded
opportunity. I have had it engraved, and
by reference to the plates the following
states of this destructive insect will be
seen:

11

Plate 1. No. 1, is a branch of an
apple-tree with the appearance it makes
when the insect is feeding on it.

No. 2. is a piece of the root of an
apple-tree with the aphis feeding on it in
a similar manner.

No. 3. is the aphis magnified and
the egg, as it appears among the down
in which the insect is enveloped, when
the weather occasions it to take shelter.

No. 4>. is the insect more highly mag-
nified.

No. 5. is an aphis that has acquired
wings ; these are by no means so plentiful
as those without. I regret that I cannot
speak with certainty, if this is a different
sex, or whether it acquires the wings from
age, which is supposed to be the case with
other species of aphis. In investigating the
common green fly, which are so frequent
on green house plants, and on rose trees
inthe spring of the year, we perceive some
which are oviparous and others that are
viviparous. This circumstance was, I
believe, first noticed by Mr. Curtis, and
it, in some degree, accounts for their mul-

42

tiplyinginthe aslonisliiiig way which it ap-
pears to do; and we observe that, in the
later stages ofexistence, many of these in-
sects become winged in a similar manner.
I notice this circumstance merely as 1
hope some persons whose time may per-
mit them, may be able to carry the
examination of these animalculae so far
as to give us a much more perfect idea
of their nature than we have at pre-
sent. There is no subject that demands
investigation more than this, and nothing
would produce more benefit to this coun-
try, and probably the world at large, than
proper encouragement being held out to
personsto make the necessary experiments,
and to publish the results arising there-
from. If the growth of fruit, or the
produce of cyder, is of any moment to us
as a country, it is necessary that atten-
tion should be immediately paid to this
subject, or the result will most inevit-
ably be, the destruction of apple trees al-
together ; and as the insect is beginning
to attack otlier kinds of fruit-trees, it is
not inu'easonable to suppose that the mis-
chief mav not end with that loss alone.

4S

Having thus discovered its subterra-
neous habitation, I had recourse to tlie
following expedient: while the frost was
in the grountl, and the snow lay on the sur-
face, I caused a necessary-house to be
emptied, and its contents taken in a soft
state, and spread regularly over the
ground, in quantity sufficient, as my men
beheved, to kill all the apple trees. When
the thaw came the whole was of course
washed down to the roots, and ever since
I have had the satisfaction of finding
the trees perfectly clear from the insect
and growing most luxuriantly ; and to
this hour all that are left unsold remain
healthy. From the success of the above
experiment, I should recommend that
the trees be continually cleaned so far as
relates to the branches, and that the roots
be made as bare as possible in tlic win-
ter season, and a dressing of the above
or a similar material applied to the roots,
and I have little doubt of its success in
curtailing the evil to a certain degree,
although it may probably be the destruc-
tion of some of the trees, vet if we can

4i

by any means lessen the ravages of this
destructive monster, we ought not to con-
sider this loss as material.

That we have other insects which infest
our fruit-trees, and diseases of different
kinds is certain ; and whoever has had
opportunity of visiting the cyder coun-
ties, cannot help having observed the
general decay of the fruit-trees, which
appears equally to affect the young and
old, with very few exceptions, a circum-
stance so much to be regretted, that it
ought most seriously to engage our atten-
tion.

It is much to be lamented, in this
age of science, that most authors who
have treated on the subject of insects,
have published works more calculated
for furthering the scientific views of the
learned, than to inform the ignorant;
so that I scarcely know of any English
author who has considered it worth his
notice to give so much of the minor his-
tory of the subject as relates the par-
ticulars of their production, existence,
and the subsequent changes through

45

which tliGsc wonderful creatures pass
during their hfe-time.

As somewhat of this knowledge is ne-
cessary before we can at all speculate in
destroying the noxious kinds of insects, or
afford protection to others that are useful,
I shall devote a page or two for the pur-
pose of describing the history of the
propagation of some of our most common
kinds.

In the butterfly kind, the different
sexes are as distinct as in the ordinary
course of animal nature, but these in-
sects differ from most other parts of the
creation, by the metamorphoses they un-
dergo, and which consist in a change of
structure which is observed during their
progress to maturity.

The egg contains the rudiments of the
insect, and from it is produced the larva,
or caterpillar, which, in many instances
casts its coat as it increases in size;
at each of which changes it assumes a
different colour and form. In this state
it is like to w hat the poet says of the
boasting lord of the creation ; " its first

46

** great ruling passion is to eat," being so
extremely voracious of its food ; that this
is the only operation it performs, and in
many instances its destructive powers are
truly alarming, a fact, it is presumed, not
unknown to many of my readers. In the
caterpillar state it exists for a consider-
able time, and its season of existence
varies in different kinds, and also as to the
food which it is destined to eat. Thus,
the silk-worm is hatched from the egg in
the month of April, at the season when
the mulberry puts forth its first leaves,
which are the natural food of this useful
creature*, and its continuance in the ca-

* I am aware that those of my readers who have
bred these insects for amusement, will say, that the
larva is generally hatched before the mulberry is in
leaf. This fact I am acquainted with, but it should
be considered, that neither the insect or the mul-
berry are natives of our climate, which causes
a difference not existing in Italy. It should be
moreover remarked, that in Switzerland the breed-
ers of the silkworms keep the eggs back from hatch-
ing by placing them out of the influence of the sun,
till the food is grown, holding it a certain maxim,
that giving them lettuce or any other food, as is
practised here, makes them sickly.

terj)illaror larva state, is till the mouth of
July, during the first luxuriant growth of
the tree. It then changes into a pupa
which is Inirder and more dry than the
caterpillar ; in this state it is confined in a
narrow compass, and becomes surrounded
by a kind of web termed a chrysalis, that
issues from its mouth, and which on being
wound oft' is the raw silk, but in some
other species it is surrounded by a hard
impervious coat, scarcely to be penetrated
by tlie sharpest instrument, or to be acted
on by the most corrosive liquid. When
the insect has escaped from this state of
torpidity, in which it lies for different
periods*, it becomes the perfect fly, and
is then fit to fulfil the principal functions
to which all nature is devoted, the re-
production of the species.

* One extraordinary circumstance attending this
race of creatures is the length of time some of the
species will remain alivein the pupastate; I released
one from a chrysalis this last summer, which had been
fixed to a wooden label in the Botanic (iarden, and
had been paijited over for eiglit years. There is a

48

Although an enumeration of all the
different kinds that infest plants at dif-
ferent periods is more than the limits
of this work will admit, yet, these in-
stances may serve so far to give an idea
of their nature, that persons who feel in-
terested may employ such means for
counteracting these great evils, as may
appear most likely to answer the pur-
pose.

It should be observed, that in general
each kind of insect has its particular food,

small kind of grasshopper described by naturalists
as coming regularly once in seventeen 3'ears, and
is called Tettigonia Septendecem from that circum
stance. But a more extraordinary account is pub-
lished by Mr. Marsham, in the Transactions of the
Linnsean Society of London, of an insect which was
known to have existed in a deal board that had been
converted into a writing desk in Guildhall. The length
of time it had been enclosed therein was uncertain,
but it was a known fact that it must have been there
upwards of forty years. It is moreover a curious cir-
cumstance, that its kind has never been noticed in
this country before, and that it is a native of China,
but is also sometimes found in Norway, and from
the latter country it is probable the timber in which
it was enclosed, was imported.

49

and they are often named by naturalists
from the plant on which they feed. As the
papilio urtica^, or tortoise-shell butterfly,
is never found on any plant but the sting-
ing nettle ; there are others which feed
only on two different plants as the phalaena
verbasci, water-betony moth, which will
eat either the mullein or water-betony,
but these are comparatively scarce to
the former, and much less common than
either is tlie brown-tail moth*, which
in the summer of 1783, committed so
much mischief on all the trees and herb-
age near London, that the whole coun-
try was very much alarmed : inasmuch
as advertisements, paragraphs, letters, &c.
almost without number were published,
and which spread great consternation
about the country. Some idea of their
number may be calculated from the fol-
lowing account, which I shall extract from
a history of this caterpillar, which was at
that time published by mypartner, the late
Mr. William Curtis : " In many of the pa-

* Bombyx phaeorhea.
D

50

" rishes near London, subscriptions have
" been opened, and the poor people em-
" ployed to cut off the webs at one shilling
" per bushel, which have been burnt un-
** der the inspection of tlie churchwar-
" dens, overseers, or beadle of tlie parish ;
" at the first onset of this business, fbur-
" score bushels, as I was most credibly
" informed, were collected in one day, in
" the parish of Clapham.*'*

It should be observed, that this gentle-
man was induced to publish his account of
this moth, to appeasethe minds of the peo-
ple. Some of the writers of that day hav-
ing asserted that "they were the usual pre-
*» sage of the plague," others, *'that their
" numbers were great enough to render
" the air pestilential, and that they would
** mangle and destroy every kind of vege-
" tation, and starvethe cattle in the fields.**
It was no wonder therefore, from these

* This insect forms a web which is attached to
the leaves of the trees, and to which it always re-
tires at night or in wet weather. Taking the
branches of the trees with the web and insect,
would certainly appear to be the readiest mode of
destroying it.

51

alarming accounts, " That almost every
" one ignorant of their history, were under
" the greatest apprehensions concerning
" them, so much so that even prayers were
" offered in some churches to deliver us
*' from the apprehended approaching ca-
" lamity."

" The caterpillar of the brown-tail moth
*' is not so limited a feeder as some, nor
*' so general a one as others. Its whole
*' economy however shews it is designed to
" feed on trees and shrubs on Avhich alone
*• it is ever found. These afford it a sup-
" port for its web, which is an habitation
** in many respects essential to its exist-
" ence, and with which herbaceous plants
" of lower growth cannot supply it."

The following facts will serve to corro-
borate what is here advanced. They are
found on the

Hawthorn most plentifully,

Oak the same.

Elm very plentifully,

Most fruit trees the same.

Blackthorn plentifully,

Rose trees the same,
D 2

52

Bramble the same,

On the willow and poplar scarce.

None have been noticed on the
Elder,
Walnut,
Ash,
Fir, or
Herbaceous plants.

Thus it appears that the mischiefs these
caterpillars are capable of occasioning, is
to rob particular trees and shrubs, and
thereby retard the growth of their foliage
and blossoms.

" With respect to fruit trees, the in-
" juries they sustain are most serious,
** as in destroying the blossoms as yet in
" the bud, they also destroy the fruit in
" embryo, the oxvners of orchards and
" standard fruit trees have therefore great
** reason to be alarmed."

Mr. Curtis also predicted, that although
it had been uncommonly numerous for
the last two seasons, it might be several
years before the like occurred again ; and
his predictions have been perfectly fulfil.

5S

led, for only once or twice since has it
made its appearance in this country in any
quantity. But we are at a loss to guess
how it can occur, that for " many years
" we do not see these creatures, and all at
*' once we have them so plentiful that
" their numbers become thus truly alarm-
" ing." A gentleman of Ciielsea, has in-
formed me, that he once took a nest of
moths and bred them, that some of the
eggs came the first year, some the second,
and others of the same nest did not hatch
till the third season. Now if the eggs of
insects are preserved thus for three years,
a chrysalis for seven, and a living insect
makes its appearance from a deal board,
where it must have lain upwards of forty
years, why should we fix any limits to the
period of their vitality in any of their dor-
mant stages of existence. We must there-
fore rest contented with such objects
as we can see, and be thankful to al-
mighty Providence, for the use of them
during our transitory residence in this life,
the secrets of nature's operations are some
of them too deep for human foresight.

D S

54

We must observe that wliilst we read in
nature's book, every page affords instruc-
tion ; the iirst ordination as given by the
great Creator, " increase and multiply"
aided by nature's first impelling instinct,
self preservation, is fully exemplified in
every lesson, and as men and rational
beings we should always bear in view the
determination as expressed, " By the
" sweat of thy brow shalt thou, &c. &c."
And should know that it is expected of us,
to use our utmost endeavours to curtail
the superfluities of nature's works, and
render those things committed to our
care as perfect as our intellect and indus-
try will admit.

I shall endeavour to illustrate the above
facts, by giving the history of some of our
most noxious insects.

oo

PapILIO CliATJE.GJ'

THE BLACK VEINED BUITEIIFLY.

THE caterpillar of this butterfly, is
one of the most destructive to fruit
trees that we have, and in particuhu* to
the apples, despoiling them of their fo-
liage early in the spring : we have men-
tioned the brown-tail moth whose ravages
are dreadful, but we have the satisfaction
of knowing, that it does not frequently
come in such great numbers, as it has
not made its appearance, in any alarming
degree, since Mr. Curtis wrote its history,
now thirty-four years since.

It would be fortunate for us, and for
our fruit trees, was the same fact to ap-
ply to the one in question, for although
we do not see it so very powerful, yet

*D 'i

56

it nevertheless commits great destruction
every s])ring, and not only to the apple-
trees but other kinds of fruits. As my
object in writing its history is intended to
shew to persons not acquainted with this
subject, its mode of living and producing
its offspring, I trust I shall be held ex-
cused if I descend to particulars that may
to some persons be already known.

The female deposits its eggs between
the interstices of the bark, and as near
to the ends of the branches as she can
find convenient, and more generally on
old trees where there is plenty of moss,
&c. to shelter the young as soon as they
are hatched, than on younger ones. The
eggs are coated with a strong mucus,
of more power than the finest glue,
as being quite impervious to moisture,
which serves to stick the eggs firmly to
the branch, those become moreover so
hard, that neither the birds nor other ani-
mals can destroy them, and in this state,
we have instances of their remaining
without losing their vitality for several
years, until a favourable opportunity of

57

their being brought into existence ar-
rives, when there is plenty of food for
them. The young ones are small on their
being first hatched, but as we observed
before, they begin the work of destruc-
tion by marshalling themselves on the
young leaves of the trees, eating off the
epidermis, and destroying it altogether as
they advance. As long as they are in their
first skins they remain together, and are of
a deep black colour, but when they arrive
at about one-third of an inch in length,
they begin to change their skins, this
is done at three different times, which
I shall describe. When the time ap-
proaches in which they put off tlieir first
skin, they spin a web together, on which
they sit fast and remain quite motionless,
after which their heads are observed to
swell, and the old skin, w^hich is now be-
come too narrow, bursts, after whicli the
caterpillar a]}pears something larger, its
head and the })oints of its hairs are pale,
but in a few minutes change to a dark
colour, nearly black ; after this they begin
to look abroad for food ; the other chansr-
D 5

58

ing of" the skin is similar to this, and is
attended with great pain to them, and in
which they often are observed to die.
Afiter the third and last changing the
caterpillar comes to perfection, at which
time it is beautiful to appearance.

Fig. 6. shews a fidl grown caterpillar
of the largest kind afiter the last chang-
ing, nearly two inches and a half long ;
they are not all of this length, especially
if they have not had sufficient fresh
food.

I shall now describe this full grown
caterpillar more fully : A caterpillar con-
sists in general of the head, neck, and
body. The head is, as in most species of
this class, prominent and heart-shaped,
divided in the middle downwards, so
that it forms a triangle towards the
mouth; from the mouth are two points
going out, which some call the man-
dibles. The head as well as the neck are
covered with many yellow protuberances
which render these parts somewhat shin-
ing. Tiie body consists often segments,
besides the last terminal part. On the
5

59

neck, as well as on these points are eight
pair of legs in the following disjiosition ;
three pair of pointed fore legs on the neck
and the two first segments, then follow
two segments without legs, the next four
segments have each of them a pair of
obtuse ones, which are commonly called
belly-legs ; two which follow next are
again destitute of legs; the last segment
has again two obtuse ones. The yel-
lowish-red quadrangular spots on the
back, are soon conspicuous, each seg-
ment has one, except the first and the
two last, lliese s})ots are cut through,
by a black longitudinal stripe which runs
along the whole back.*

* We observe great difffrence in the size and
colour of butterriics which causes the diversity of
beauty in these insects. It must be also noticed,
that eacli fly differs equally in its caterpillar state.
The description above applies to the one in ques-
tion, but others equally common are found that are
hairy, and the hairs in some kinds are so stiff as to
perforate the fingers when touched; others arc pre*
pared with small bladders that contain a liquid
which they throw out with considerable force on
the approach of an enemy, or on any molestation
being offered to them.

D (I

(JO

After the caterpillar has enjoyed itself
for some time on the apple-tree, and by
taking sufficient nourishment has arrived
at its full growth, the time approaches
when they put off their worm-like appear-
ance, and take on another very different
from this ; a work which no sensible man
can look at without the greatest astonish-
ment, it being done in the following
manner : the caterpillar takes no food for
more than twenty-four hours, but dis-
charges in this time all the excrements
contained in its body; they then quit their
social life, and each looks out for a con-
venient place on the tree where he may
shelter himself from the weather and
the sun ; it then fastens itself to this
place with a little of the web by the two
hind legs, so that the head looks down-
wards, and is bent in towards the belly.
After remaining in this state for a day
or longer, which depends on the weather,
its head swells, and the skin bursts and
rolls back. In a few minutes, it exhibits
a figure very singular, and different froni

61

the fbrmci', which is called the pupa, and
which I shall now describe :

The upper part of this pupa is not
unlike the nuisk of a man's face. There
appears at the top something resembling
a pair of horns, and lower down on each
side, another pair of smaller ones ; then
follows an acute prominent nose in the
middle, and on both sides are seen
round globules like a pair of eyes ; in
some of them appear also some round
and oblong dots of an ochre-yellow
colour ; the other part consists of eight
joints witli seven pair of beautiful yel-
low and black spots, the third pair ot
which are the largest, the rest are gradu-
ally smaller, to the last by which the pupa
is affixed: all this is accurately figured in
fig. 7 and 8. The colour is dirty or dark
brown ; in the beginning, when the skin
is soft, but in a few minutes somewhat
lighter.

This pupa seems to be quite lifeless,
but on being touched we soon perceive a
motion in it, and this is very necessary,
as it serves to keep off its enemies ; for

62

the ichneumons * and several other insects
are very fond of laying tlieir eggs in it,
especially as long as there is some soft-
ness in it ; for, to keep off these unwel-
come guests, and defend itself from
destruction, tlie pupa throws itself ahout
with violence, and its horns are very ser-
viceable in defending itself. After tliis
pupa has remained about a fortnight, in
which the weather is still warm, without
taking any nourishment, (it is then of a
beautiful green and yellow colour, and is
found attached to the branches of the
apple-tree, and not uncommonly on the
white-thorn,) we see it break open at the
top, and two long horns together with
some legs make their appearance, and
almost a moment after this the papilio
climbs up on the empty shell, and places
itself in such a posture that the Mdngs
are hanging down. Here it sits quiet
with the wings folded together, which are
at this time not larger than the shell
that contained them j these wings grow

♦ A small insect which preys on this caterpillar.

described hereafter-

63

so quick, that in a quarter of an hour's
time they are arrived to their full size,
which requires indeed attention. After
they have acquired their proper firmness,
which is done in another quarter of an
hour, the pupa cleanses itself by dis-
charging a tew drops of a blood-coloured
liquid ; then the pupa expands his
winffs and folds them aa:a'n\ toojether
which causes a little noise ; after this he
flies away with alacrity as if it had been
in the practice of it for a long time,
hence it becomes one of those beautiful
harbingers of spring, a butterfly.

We have now before us, instead of an
odious worm, a flying creature ; instead
of a creeping one, an insect which flutters
at its ease, inhaling sweets from every
flower, instead of a caterpillar which chose
the apple-tree for its food and abode.
We must examine it closer : I will de-
scribe, first the wings, especially the
underside of them, as this shews itself
first. They are grey, painted like mar-
ble with many transverse pointed lines.
Each wing is in the same manner beau-

6i

tifuUy veined with blue on a white ground.
The upper part of the wings is of a fine
white colour like silk, striped with black
lines, fig. 9. The head has two round
brown eyes, at the front are two long in-
curv'edpointslyingtogether, between these
a spiral proboscis, which they can put out
to the length of their body, with this
they suck the juice out of the flowers.
At the top are two long capillary anten-
nae or horns, terminating in a black
little club with a yellow point, the rest
of the horns are black ; all butterflies
are furnished with these. On the fore-
part of the body are four yellow legs,
before them a pair of blunt and hairy
ones. These parts are common to all the
butterflies of the first class, i. e. those
termed Papilio.

There are two sexes, male and female.
The females soon lay their eggs. The dif-
ference of the sex is not so conspicuous
in the butterfly, as it is in those of the
second class termed phalaena, or moths ;
for in the first there is no difference except
in the belly, which is thicker and larger

65

in the females ; but in the males, there
is besides this mark, a considerable dif-
ference in the antennai' or horns.

At the time when the female is going to
lay its eggs it quits the flowers, and goesfor
some time to the apple-tree or hawthorn,
where it deposits them in a safe place.

If this is done in summer, the young
ones will come out in two or three weeks,
but when the eggs are laid in the autumn,
they will remain as they are till the next
spring, or longer. In all cases the young
ones iind their food immediately on the
spot where they are hatched. Here is
a wonderful thing to contemplate ! Who
has told the female that her offspring
cannot find nourishment on the flowers,
but on the trees ? and who has taught her
to prefer the apple-tree or the hawthorn
to all other sorts of trees and plants ?
How does she know that the young ones
cannot fly about like herself for their
food, supposing they should not find
nourishment on the place where they
creep out? How wonderfully does the
Almighty provide even for such a des-
*D 9

66

picable worm, and prepare its food even
before it is born.

After depositing the eggs, the butter-
flies amuse themselves for some time
among the flowers, and soon after they
die, mostly in the same year in which
they were hatched, except the season is
late, in which case they hide themselves
in the hollow bark of trees, or in other
places, where they remain for the winter,
and appear again in the next spring.

67

PhaljENj Disfar, 1.

THE GIPSEY MOTH.

THE caterpillar, which is figured No.
10. is a garden as well as a wood-
caterpillar, because it commits its depre-
dations not only on the leaves of aU the
fruit trees in the gardens, but also of the
trees in the woods, especially the old oaks,
on which they are to be found every year.
When this caterpillar, and especially
that which becomes the future female
phalaena, is full grown, its head is yel-
lowish, full of small black characters and
dots. Instead of the eyes it has two large
spots full of black dots. The mouth is a
little elevated and pointed towards the
eyes or forehead. The width of the
head generally exceeds that of the body,

68

and above the mouth, on the fissure of
the forehead are two longitudinal black
spots. The ground-colour of the body
is whitish-grey, but closely covered with
black characters and dots. The neck
has two folded joints, which are, like the
two first of the ten joints of the body,
furnished with little whitish globules,
each of which has a smaller one annexed
to it, and both are covered with whitish
hairs.

The stripe on the back is white, its
edges beset with black dots, like lines.
The ten joints of the body have on both
sides of this back-stripe large globules,
the two first pairs of them are violet-co-
loured, the rest purplish-red, so that there
are twenty globules on the back, four
white, four blue, and twelve red. Be-
tween the eighth and ninth pairs of these
globules, is placed on the middle of the
white back-stripe, an elevated shining
globule. On the third and fourth joints
sucli globules are placed next to the white
back-stripe.

When the young ones have just crept
out of the egg, they look quite black, and

69

even alter the first changing are more
black than variegated ; they disperse im-
mediately and creep singly on the upper
and foremost leaves of tlie twigs and from
them to others ; they do not keep to-
gether, except it should happen that in
bad weather some of them meet by
chance in seeking for a shelter. After
they have stripped one tree, they go to
another, and do not spare any leaf, especi-
ally in gardens.

This caterpillar is very beautiful af-
ter its last changing, and when old and
big enough spins itself up in some leaves
of the tree, if there are any left ; it draws
them together by some threads, to be
sheltered from the injury of the weather,
it makes the web so loose that it serves
only to prevent it from falling through
and to keep off its enemies. If there are
no leaves left on the trees it creeps
down into the grass and spins itself up
there. After the web is finished the
pupa is formed, in which the wings,
antennas and legs of the phalaena are
already to be seen. It deposits its skin

70

by splitting first the head and then draw-
ing it dovv^n over the body by a continual
bending and motion.

The chrysalis has a point below, by
which it fastens itself to the inside of the
web, so that it cannot easily be shaken off.
By the slightest touch it moves the belly
strongly, to terrify and keep off the enemy,
it has the head hanoincr downwards which
it throws about as the heaviest part ; and as
a hard skin, is hanging and round, it is
shielded from the attacks made by the ich-
neumons. It is entirely brownish-black,
and retains on the joints of the body, and
on the wings, head and face, some yel-
lowish-red fascicules of hairs.

The big-bellied ones are females,
they have white wings, undulated with
brown and black, so that the extre-
mities of them appear black, and to-
wards the body become browner and
paler.

The male, fig. 13. is not half so big,
and has brown wings, so that one would
take it for a dilierent species. The an-
tennae or horns, are like feathers, on botli

71

sides with hairs, bent a little towards each
other so as to form a concavity. The
under wings in both sexes are round, not
pointed at the end, like the upper ones,
but have at the brim angular black dots
like the outer wings, and in the middle a
brownish spot.

The female does not fly in the day,
nor even a great way at night-time, on ac-
count of its heaviness ; but it creeps fre-
quently about on the trees, and seeks for
a sheltered place under the brandies or
elsewhere, to lay its eggs. If it does
not find a convenient place on one tree
it comes down and creeps up to another.
Where there are young fruit trees, it lays
the eggs on the poles to which these are
fastened, and particularly on the place
below the fastenings ; in the old trees
it puts them in the crevices of the
bark ; in gardens on the espalliers, or on
hedges and other places where they have
a little shelter. When tlie eggs are laid,
which are globular and shining white,
they do not only stick very fast to the
place where they are put, by a viscid sub-

72

stance which covers them, but the hairs
of the belly iof the mother stick at the
same time so numerous to them, that
each egg is kept very warm, and co-
vered as with a smooth fur, so that
rain or cold cannot easily hurt it. A
stout female will lay four hundred or
more such eggs, near one another in one
place.

In the beginning of the month of July
most of the caterpillars are spun up, and
the moths creep out of the chrysalis
in the same month. But the young ones
fi:om the eggs only come out the next
year, at the time when the leaves are
pretty much out.

Though this caterpillar is common in
gardens and woods, where it does con-
siderable damage, yet I believe its history
has hitherto been but imperfectly known.

7S

.WARABJSUS MELOLONTHA.

THE TREE BEETLE, OR COCK CHAFER.

I KNOW of no greater pest to fruit or
forest trees than this insect when
in its perfect state, sometimes whole coun-
tries have been so much infested with
them that scarcely a single leaf was left.
In Richmond Park this summer, 1 ob-
served the leaves of the oak trees to be
most shockingly eaten up by them, so
much so timt scarcely a perfect leaf was
left. But it is not in the perfect state of
this insect that all its mischief is ac-
complished : in its larva state, in which it
exists for four years, it feeds on the
roots of young trees and plants. I remem-
ber seeing in a nursery near Bagshot, se-
veral acres of young forest trees, particu-
larly larch, the roots of which were com-

74

pletely destroyed by it, so much so that
not a single tree was left alive. Some
meadows at Twickenham were so dread-
fully infested with them, that I have
seen the grass destroyed completely on
considerably large spaces, so that I advised
the owner two years ago to rake it up to
gether and burn it, which was done ; this
autumn the meadows are also infested
with it in the same manner. — Fig. 13.
represents a perfect insect of this Idnd.

The female digs into the ground the
depth of a span, and lays her eggs, which
are oval and of a pale yellow colour.
After this it creeps out again and lives
some time longer upon the leaves of trees,
and in time proceeds to lay another parcel.

Roesel put some females pregnant
into glasses half filled with earth, with
a tuft of grass over each, covered with
a thin cloth. After a fortnight he found
in one of the glasses some hundreds
of eggs (No. 12.) he left another glass
unexamined for fear of hurting the eggs,
and put it in a cellar. Towards autumn
he looked at the glass and then perceived

75

at tlie bottom, nothing but such worms
as I have represented in fig. 13. He ob-
served that the tuft of grass was somewhat
withered in tlie cellar, and as he guessed
that the worms took their nourishment
from it, he changed it for a fresh one.

Through the autumn his worms in-
creased remarkably. He put the glass
again in the cellar for the winter, and on
the approach of the spring, he took it out
again that the tuft might keep green.
In May, or some time later in summer,
when the worms were near a twelvemonth
old, they were of the size of fig. 14. and he
was now obliged to give them a green tuft
every second or third day. When this
was no longer sufficient for them, he took
some pots, sowed peas, lentils, andsallad in
them; andafterthe youngplantsw^erecome
out he put them in these pots that they
might findnourishmenton the youngroots
of these plants, but in order to let them
have sufficient, he could not put in more
than one or two worms in each. In tl;is
manner he kept them till the second year,
after which they were the size of fig. 15.
E 2

76

The third year, before they change into
d chafer, the worms or grubs are the size
and form of fig. 16.

In this state I shall describe the worm.
Its length is nearly an inch and an half,
but as it mostly lies crooked it looks
somewhat shorter. The colour for the
most part whitish-yellow, under which, on
the wrinkles of the back, it appears green-
ish. The under surface is smooth, the
upper one round and arched. The last
segment is the largest, and has, from the
food and excrement contained in it, a
shining violet colour. The whole body,
the head excepted, consists of twelve
segments, as in the caterpillars, and on
the arched part of the back, are on each
segment a couple of wrinkles or folds to
be seen, which serve to push the worm
forwards. On each side of the body runs
a prominent margin, furnished with nine
dots, which are air holes, there is one on
each side every segment, the second,
third, and last excepted. The six legs
which are under the three first segments,
are yellowish red, and have four or five
joints, the last one of which, especially

77

mi the hind leg, is blunt. There are
no claws on them, but all the joints are
beset with tender hairs, as is the whole
body here and there. The head is pretty
large and flat, rounded ; its colour, yel-
lowish-brown and shining, it has strong
brown blunt palpa or feelers obtusely den-
tated, between them a half round max-
illa; with these instruments, the worm
gnaws the roots of plants and sucks the
nourishment out.

There are no eyes to be seen ; but be-
hind the palpa, theie is on each side a
yellowish-brown tentaculum with five
joints. I could never find out w^hich are
the males or the females, though in the
perfect chafer the difference is very con-
spicuous. They hardly creep out of the
ground, and when dug out, endeavour to
hide themselves again directly. JBecause
birds are very eager after them, and they
do not like the light of the sun.

The worm renews its skin at least
once a year, and for this, it makes a spa-
cious hole in the ground, in which it de-
posits the old skin ; this hole is round
E 3

78

and hard. After the skin is deposited,
the worm leaves its hole and goes to the
roots of plants again. But when the
winter comes on and the ground becomes
hard and frozen, it goes again down deep
into the ground, and remains with-
out food till the weather gets warmer.
This will seem to some people incredible,
but if we dig the ground in the month of
May, when the chafer appears, we shall
see the worm, and not only of one, but of
all four sizes at several times, as figured
in 13, 14, 15, 16. The changing is per-
formed also by the worm going down
into the ground to the depth of more
than a yard, there it makes a hole, the
inside of which it makes smooth by its
excrements and moisture, so as to have
a safe and convenient place ; soon after,
it begins to swell and deposits its last
skin J it has now the form of fig. 17.
Many of these were kept in pots, but
the most part of them always died. It
looks first white, but gets by degrees
darker, and at last becomes a dirty
orange or reddish-yellow colour. The

79

toi 111 and outer structure shews already
what is concealed in the inside. The
head and shield is depressed towards the
belly. The legs, horns, and wings are
observable, half of the feet are covered
by the wings. On the hinder part of the
body are dark spots on the last seg-
ment, a part which is bent backwards
towards the back, in which the tail is
concealed. On being touched it shews
a good deal of motion, and is able to turn
itself. In the month of January, or at
farthest February, the chafer comes out
of this pupa, it is quite soft, and of a
whitish-yellow colour, and in ten or
twelve days it acquires its due hard-
ness and colour, but it still keeps under
ground for three or four months longer;
this has made some people believe that
the chafer goes into the earth and comes
out again every year.

After, therefore, the insect has been
in the state of a worm for fbiu' years,
and for the most part of this time has
been under ground, it appears in the
month of May, (or according as the
E 4

80

weather is milder or colder, sooner or
later,) in the form of a chafer. About this
time one may observe them in the even-
ing coming out of their old habitations
here and there, fig. 18., and if their
number is great, one may see in many
places on the ground, as in footpaths, &c.
many round holes, fig. 19- Fig 20, and
21, shew two full grown chafers.

Thus have we a curious and instruc-
tive lesson conveyed through the history
of one of nature's meanest productions,
but we must regard it as one of those
links in the grand scale, which like every
individual wheel in a clock, is necessary
to the welfare of all, and from which we
may in some degree devise how to check
their baneful influence. Let us contem-
plate the facts that some of the tribes of in-
sects are produced by putting a plant in
a pot in the sun, without the admission
of the atmosphere, as it will then have
insects on it ; and we see no appearance
for years together of the brown-tail moth
so very destructive in some seasons to
our hedges, although it must be during this

81

interval in existence ; let us I say, consider
these facts and compare them with the
small stock of comparative knowledge we
possessofthispaitofnatural economy. The
farmers in Scotland now practise Reau-
mur's method of rubbing the eggs of poul-
try over with any oily substance to pre-
vent their becoming putrid, &c. by which
their vitality is preserved for a length of
time. The eggs of many insects are co-
vered with a mucus which has no doubt
the property of preserving them, as these
eggs- are hatched by the warmth of the at-
mosphere, and their hatching may be re-
tarded, as is instanced in the silk-worm,
and there are some species that areknown
to live for many years both in the chry-
salis and egg state, until a favourable
season arrives for their coming forth.
I this season released a pupa * from a

* It should be observed that some caterpillars
when turning into the pupa state, exude from their
mouths a hard substance like glue, which forms their
cell, and this being attached to such places as
they find convenient to lie up in, they remain
perfectly secure from danger.
E 5

82

liard chrysalis that had been painted over
seven years, and which was perfectly ahve.
A curious fact of an insect having been
found on planeing the surface of a writing
desk, in Guildhall, which had been used for
a great number of years, as is related in
the Trans. Lin. Soc. Lond. 1815, puts
the matter beyond a doubt, that these
creatures will live for a great length of
time without making their appearance.
What reason have we therefore to put
limits to the law^s of nature on this head,
or what reason have we to doubt of the
white bug which we now complain of,
iiaving lain in a dormant state for ages,
and having now again made its appear-

We do not know for what reason one should only
be protected by a silken cord, whilst the other has
a nest of a much firmer texture. It is worthy ob-
Bcrvation however, that these kinds in general are
more scarce, and the caterpillars are usually
found only one or two at most together.

There are some insects that are described by
naturalists as coming regularly once in certain
periods, one of these is the tettigonia septendecem,
so called because it is supposed to appear only once
in seventeen years.

85

ance afresh; and when this subject is thus
under consideration, is it at all unreason-
able to conjecture, that this insect, or
some similar one may have been the
cause of the ablaqueation of trees prac-
tised by the ancients, or that this insect
may have increased of late from that
operation having been neglected by the
moderns.

" The tree must have some recreation
** given to it in winter after his great tra-
** vail in bringing forth of his fruit, and
" that in this sort : as by opening the
•* earth and laying his roots bare, that you
** may cleanse them. Afterwards at the
" end of winter you shall cover his roots
*• againe." Maison liusttque.

From the foregoing observations, we
shall naturally conclude, that a tree being
constituted as it is above described, must
be hke the animal frame, subject to much
injury from external damage as well as
internal disease, l^ for instance we rup-
ture a blood vessel, an interruption of the
E 6

84

circulation takes place, and sickness and
debility are the natural consequences.

If we neglect ourselves and suffer filth
and vermin to accompany us, emaciation
follows of course, and rickets and other
diseases fatal to growth are the consequent
accompaniments ofyouth in this neglected
state.

85

CURCULIO NUCUM,

IT often happens in cracking a nut or
filbert, which we take to be very good
and sound, wc find it is inhabited by a
small grub (which is the larva of a bee-
tle,) that consumes the kernel by degrees
intirely ; the autumn is generally the time
when the larvae are found in them ; but as
these do not originate from the nut or
from themselves, the question is how they
come into it, especially as there is no re-
markable opening to be observed in it j
The case is as follows : a small cha-
fer, which differs from all others by
its rostrum, is observed on the hazel
in the month of August, and some-
times later ; these chafers creep some
times about as if they were eagerly look-

86

ing to pick up something, and perhaps
part of them may look for a companion,
as we find at that time the two sexes
often in company ; and while the male
chafers are looking for nourishment on
the hazel, the females of them look at
the same for a place where they may
safely lay their eggs, and where the
future young larvae may find sufficient
nourishment, and this place is always a
young, green, and soft nut, in which the
kernel is still very small j this the chafer
bores through with its rostrum, and
knows by this not only whether the nut
is good and sound, but also whether
another chafer has not put an egg in it
already, and hence we seldom or never
find more than one larva in a nut. If it
finds the nut in the required state, it
proceeds to lay its egg in the kernel in
such a manner that it remains sticking to
it, and after a fortnight or sometimes
later, the larva comes out, which acquires
its full size in September or October, at
which time we find very often the nut
filled with a larva and its excrements

87

instead of the kernel ; sometlme^i the
latter is only half consumed. If it hap-
pens that tlie larva is hatched before the
kernel is sufficiently grown, it finds only
nourishment so long as this lasts, and it
afterwards dies, as it cannot creep out
and go to another nut, being destitute of
feet, the nut will then be found empty.
But if the kernel be full grown, so as to
fill the nut, then the larva will have
sufficient nourisliment till it becomes
perfect ; and it lives within it, though one
cannot see any sign of it outwardly, ex-
cept a few small brown dots. In the
nut represented in fig. 22, are such
dots to be seen by letter «., and these are
always a sure sign of a larva in the inside
of it, whether it be dead or alive. After
the larva has acquired its perfections, it
eats through the hard shell of the nut,
either when still on the tree or when
fallen down on the ground, which latter
case happens very often, for the nuts
inhabited by larvse ripen sooner than
others, and consequently fall ofi' sooner.
In such nuts then, there is always a round

88

hole, fig. 22, /;., which, compared to the
thickness of the larva, seems much too
small for it to go through, but where the
head can pass through, the body will
easily follow. Fig. 23, shews the larva
creeping and stretched, and fig. 24. bent
and lying on its back. These larvae look
much like those of the earth-chafers of
the first class, but they have not the
grey bag at the end which these have,
they have the same light ochre-yellow
colour and transversal foldings, and their
round head is also shining and brownish
red, on the first segment are two spots
of the same colour. The legs of the
body are wanted in this larva ; instead of
these there are small warts on all the fold-
ings of the under part, and on both
sides, and on the three first segments are
six very small, hard, conspicuous claw
feet, which serve the larva to creep on a
flat surface though very slowly, for
which reason it endeavours directly to
work itself into the ground, and when
out of the nut, is always found under
ground.

89

As Roesel wished to see these larvae
cliange, he collected, for several years run-
ning, numbers of them in the months of
October and November, put them into
glasses half rilled with earth, and with,
tufts of grass up on them and observed that
they dug down directly into the earth,
and remained there all the winter through
till tlie next year, and part of them
till the month of June, in their larva
state, and after this they changed into
pupae as figured in fig. 24. Except the
colour, which was the same light ochre-
yellow as in the pupae, there was no
more similitude between them, but on
the contrary, all the parts of the future
chafer were already conspicuous. On
the last segment are two short points,
which serve the pupa to turn about
in its cavern, and I have often seen
how quickly it moves and turns itself.

In the month of August the chafers
begin to push off their tender involu-
crum, this was done gradually in the
space from the 1st to the 20th day of
that month j but they still remained an-

90

der ground for eight days longer, as
the parts had not yet acquired sufficient
hardness j they then ventured to come
out of their dark habitation, and appeared
as such yellowish-brown curculios as are
represented accurately in %. 25, and
26, the first of which is the female,
the other the male, w^hich is always
thinner than the female, but for the rest
not in the least different from it.

I have given this account of the above
small beetle, because it is of common
occurrence, and its mode of producing
young exhibits a very curious natu-
ral phenomenon ; and although this
creature is only found on the nut, yet
its mode of breeding will serve to ex-
plain another that almost every season
commits great destruction on the bloom-
ing buds of the apple and pear trees.

During the autumn we frequently ob-
serve a small red beetle, which is busily
employed in traversing the branches of
the apple trees, and this is in its nature
similar to the last described, it lays its
eggs by perforating the bloom buds, and

91

in tlie spring these hatch, and the iarvse
feed on the petals of the flowers, and by
their web they draw up the whole flower
in a cluster. The bloom thus becomes
destroyed, and the larva falls to the
ground, where it lays itself up in the
chrysalic state, and in the autumn after-
wards, we find the beetle renewed,
which again perforates the wood buds of
the trees, and causes a similar destruc-
tion thereof in the following spring.

As the larva of this beetle feeds on the
buds of trees in the spring of the year,
where a continual change is every hour
produced in the vegetation, we cannot
easily give a description of all its changes,
it is, however, very similar to the one
that inhabits the nut, and which is de-
scribed above.

Mr. Knight, in his treatise of the ap-
ple, mentions a beetle which also com-
mits great destruction on the apple trees
in Herefordshire, but as that gentleman
has described its habits as different from
this, I do not think it the same, the one

92

1 have described above is very common
in the gardens near London.

There does not appear to be any more
reasonable mode of preventing this insect
from proceeding in its business of pro-
creation, than by putting round the
branches where it is observed to be
abundant, some birdlime or common tar,
which will hold them as they crawl, and
prevent their getting to the buds, the
beetle is bred in the ground, and al-
though it has wings, it is more com-
monly observed crawling on the stems of
the trees than on the wing.

A. is a representation of this beetle of
its natural size.

B. is the larva of its full size, as it is
usually found, both on the blossoms and
leaves of the apple in the spring.

C. is the same changed into a chry-
salis, and is often found just under small
clods of earth in the spring, and not un-
frequently in hollows of the bark of the
tree.

From the great tendency of these in-

93

sects to increase, one would naturally
wonder we have not a greater number
always surrounding us than we actually
have. We should however consider, at
the same time, that the intention of
Providence is by no means fulfilled to its
extent, in the mere destruction which
these creatures commit on the vegetable
world. They are destined for food for
other creatures of a similar nature, and
scarcely is there among them any but what
either indirectly or directly give up their
bodies for food to some of a different
class, the larvse of the cock chafer de-
scribed above, are the principal food of
rooks, and that sagacious bird will fly
many miles in the summer season to pro-
cure them for their young. Poultry, and
particularly turkies, are known to be
fond of these grubs, and I have also
known dogs to eat the chafers ; the va-
rious species of linnets and other small
birds feed on the larvic of different in-
sects, and hedgehogs are usefully kept in
gardens to devour snails. There also is
known to be an enemy to these insects
6

94.

existing, which is more wonderful than
any of the above, and as it is a curious
history, I shall finish this subject by
relating it. It is a small insect which
feeds on the larvae of many of the butter-
flies and moths, and is often the cause
of great disappointment to the curious
aurelian, I remember once, before I
was aware of the subject, that out of
twenty cluysalidesof the papilio brassicae,
or calbage butterfly, nineteen were
quite destroyed by this small insect,
which lends its body in return to that
animal which is by Providence destined
to feed on it. I'hus we see that there
is not an atom of animated nature or
unorganized matter, but which is of
service in its turn to the general good of
the whole.

95

ICHNE UMON P UPAR UM.

FIG. 27 shews a pupa of the brown
tail moth described above, which I
found full of maggots, out of which the
insects came, now to be described ; for
this reason, I figure the pupa, though it
is not this species alone to wliich these
insects confine themselves, for all the pupae
of papiliones are subject to this plague
without distinction.

When the caterpillarwhich has changed
into the pupa lays itself up to undergo
the changing, and has scarcely deposited
its skin, we often observe a number of
little insects flying about the still soft and
greenish pupjii, for the purpose of lay-
ing their eggs on it. As these little
creatures choose for this purpose a fresh

06

and soft pupa, it seems they know, that
in such a state it has not the power to
prevent them from doing it, by a strong
motion or throwing about ; and as the
females of these insects have no sting*
for laying eggs, they cover the pupa
with them, which stick so fast to it, that
they do not fall off by the increasing
hardness of the pupa. If after a short
time the little maggots want more nourish-
ment, they creep into the inside of the
pupa.

The eggs are exceedingly small, and
hardly visible to the naked eye, and,
through the microscope, have nothing
uncommon with other eggs, therefore I
did not think it necessary to give a mag-
nified figure of them. The maggots,
when just crept out, are of the same size,
but as soon as they arc in the pupa, they
begin to feed upon the papilio, which
lays in a half liquid substance in it. This
now putrefies, and is at last totally con-
sumed, so that the skin of the pupa only
is left filled with maggots. Fig. 27. shews
their natural size j they are whitish yeU

97

yellow, have no legs, they change likewise
into piipas, which have at first the same
colour, but grow soon darker and greyer.
This I have observed when I cut the
pupa of the papilio open, closed it care-
fully up again, and looked at it after some
days. The number of the little pupas is
often from 200 to 300 in one. Among
them I observed, sometimes, some larger
ones of a different form, which as I
soon found, produced different insects,
Tliese maggots do not spin themselves
up in webs as others do, when they
change into pupas, nor hav^e they occa-
sion for it, for the skin of the large pupa
is a safe habitation for them, where they
can remain without danger, until they
acquire their perfection. This is about
a fortnight in sunnner, but those which
are produced in autumn remain all the
winter. They deposit their pupa-skin
all at one time, after this, they eat
through the large pupa, and fly for some
time about it, as the bees do about their
hives. Some of them copulate imme»
diately, and the females go to find ano-

F

98

ther pupa of a papilio to lay their eggs on.
Fig. 28. is the natural size. Fig. 29. is a
little magnified. The antennae are ca-
pillary ; the females are bigger than the
males and destitute of" the aculeus. The
fore and back part of the body is shining
like a gold chafer, the ground colour of
it is green ; the legs are orange colour.

99

ON THE MANAGEMENT OF APPLE
TREES IN GENERAL.

nPHE theory lately published as to the
period of existence of fruit and other
trees, for which the world is indebted to
Mr. Knight, is fixed on reasonable and
true principles, and we see it more and
more evident as time elapses ; we also
observe a gradual change in many of our
fruit trees for the worse. Yet I never-
theless think, that this state of decav
from old age, may in some cases be mis-
taken for the bad effects pro luced by
mismanagement. I have observed in
some places, the trees of the royal russet,
the nonpareil, and the golden rennet ex-
hibit appearances of this kind equal to
that generally noticed of the golden pip-
pin, &c. ; but notwithstanding, I observe
such kinds in other places healthy and
thriving, so that I am of opinion, that these

F 2

100

varieties are capable of being brought
round again, equal to what they have
been, and what they were with us thirty
years past. I would therefore wish to
caution the growers of fruit from fall-
ing into the extreme, of attributing what
is caused by maltreatment, to old age
and irrecoverable decay; although there is
room enough in our cider countries for
persons to despair of ever seeing any
kind of apple trees in health again.

The two most destructive diseases to
the human race, whose very names alone
carried fear and dismay into every part
of the world, we have happily seen much
lessened in their progress. The plague,
from a habit of cleanliness amongst na-
tions, is scarcely known, but in a small
filthy district in Asia : and the small-pox,
which was considered a scourge from
Heaven among the Europeans, has been
nearly extirpated by the ingenuity and
application of one of our own country-
men. Shall we then, after contemplat-
ing such blessings as these, which have
been obtained by industry alone, despair

101

of* being capable of growing a fruit that
was so much the boast of oUr forefathers,
and one, too, which is indigenous to the
country ?

Having therefore endeavoured to take
into consideration the great injuries trees
receive in the common way in whicli
they are usually planted out for orchards,
and having also given an account of a few
of our most noxious insects, it remains to
point out such a mode of treatment as
seems most likely to forward the purposes
of a change in this system.

In the first place, the adapting of the tree
properly to the soil. Loams or stiff hold-
ing deep soils, are such as the apple tree
usually succeeds in ; at the same time, as
too much moisture is highly injurious,
particular care should be paid to the
proper draining all kinds of orchards.

GEconomy in manure *, such as is
formed from animal substances, as that

* There is no subject that more interests the

orchardist in the present day tlian this, and none

that is more lost sight of. It has been observed by

one of our best agriculturists, " that nothing should

F 3

ti'om slaughter-houses or night-soil is
found the best for fruit trees in general,
and where it is used, should be well
rotted and mixt with earth some time pre-

be wasted that any animal will eat," aiul we may
with equal propriety say, that nothing should be
ivasted that ivill add to the stock of manure. The
people of Switzerland, a country noticed for its
husbandry, have always paid great attention to this,
and by having tanks formed in their farm-yards,
they preserve all the urine from the cattle, and also
all other subjects formed from the concerns of
house-keeping, &c. and which being every hour in-
creasing, amounts to a valuable mass in the aggre-
gate ; and it will be worth the English farmers'
while to consider, how great and valuable a quan-
tity is continually running to waste in the course of
the year, even from the soap-suds of his wash-house
to the draining of his hog-sties, &c. and as there is
no mode of giving manure to old trees so convenient
as to apply it to the roots in a liquid state, such a
mixture would be of essential service at this time,
vide note, page 23.

I have noticed in more than one instance, the
country farm-yards where cattle are fed, and where
the grand depot of manure is made, through which
runs a brook, the water of which passes through
the dung for many months together, this absurditj'
I cannot help noticing, and I only refrain from being
more particular, because I would not wish to bo
considered personal in my observation?.

103

viously to being applied. In the neigh-
bourhood of London and other places,
many useful manures may be obtained,
such as the refuse of sugar-bakers, soap-
makers, &c. &c. bullocks' blood, hair, and
the scraping of seal skins, bone dust, and
the refuse of manufacturers of cart grease,
the coarse graves from tallow-chandlers
not fit to feed animals. The neighbour-
hood of Saffron-hill affords a large variety
of these precious things.

As to preventing the ravages of in-
sects, I can give but little hopes to our
fruit growers, except by the destruction
of their eggs, or when they are in their
young state, and in some instances, by
exposing of the parts where insects breed
to the action of frost *, and this in par-

* I am aware of its being the received opinion,
that the eggs of insects are in general impervious to
the frost ; this, I am fully aware, holds good in a
great number, but we have many species of these
creatures that are not originally natives of this
country, and consequently, if they are from a
ch'mate not accustomed to frost, they are likely to
be killed or checked thereby. Hothouses used
F 4

104

ticular in the case of aphis lanata. Tlic
cleaning trees by scraping and cutting

for forcing grapes and other fruits, are stored
with a great number of species that are introduced
by exotic plants; and it has been, for time immemo-
rial, considered by our best gardeners, as a requisite
practice in winter time, to expose such places or
the trees at least, to the influence of the weather.
We know our chafer gets into the ground for pro-
tection, our earth worm goes also into the ground,
below the action of the frost, and the eggs of moths
and butterflies are secured by a strong gluten, as
is described above. The snail has its protection
in its shell, and its eggs are laid under the pro-
tection of stones, &c. But no doubt it would be
difficult to keep alive the eggs of silk worms if ex-
posed to frost, or the cock-roach, which is always
abundant in ships when they arrive from hot cli-
mates, or the coccus, so destructive to grapes in
the hothouse : of the last, it is worthy notice,
that it is never seen without doors.

I have noticed an opinion given by a very intelli-
gent gentleman on this subject, in the Transactions
of the London Horticultural Society, that the idea of
the eggs of insects being killed by the action of the
frost is in general erroneous ; but this observation
was made to caution gardeners from laying too much
stress on the effects of the weather for performing what
they by their industry ought to accomplish. I am truly
sorry the practice of gardening is at so very low an
ebb, as to furnish reasons for such hints. But I am

105

offall the moss and missletoe,and thinning
the trees of the wood where it is necessary,
washing the trees all over in the winter
season with hot lime and water, with a
little oil or soft soap, to which sulphur
and soot are excellent additions. No in-
sect can exist long in such a mixture ;
and those materials are also certain anti-
dotes to all species of Lichen *, the moss
that usually grows on apple trees. Many
of our insects are nurtured in this sub-
stance, as well as in the ground under
the trees. By frequently turning up the
soil numberless insects are destroyed in
the chrysalis state, both by the weather

nevertheless of opinion, there are many useful men
in the profession who want no such stimulus to
excite them to their duty, and who will blush to see
it named. Mr. Spence in Communications to the
Hort. Sac.

* All species of mosses bloom in the winter, at
which time they are most easily destroyed. I have
this winter seen many apple trees in Herefordshire
so incumbered with this substance and missletoe, as
to have formed a favourable place of retreat for a
white owl, and where it would have rested safe from
the prying eye of even a cockney sportsman at noon
day,

P 5

106

and by the birds that are always in at-
tendance on this operation.

There is nothing in human economy
more calculated to insure health and
comfort than clecmUness in the full extent
of its meaning, whether with regard to
the person or clothing, and the same
principle holds good in husbandry ; we
see its influence in the breeding, nurtur-
ing, and fattening of all kinds of animals,
we also observe it in the land among our
crops, and if we only pay a proper atten-
tion to the subject, amongst our fruit trees;
for we shall find that the eggs of many of
our insects, as well as the cln-ysalides in
which they lie up, are fixed to the dead
wood on the trees, and also to that which
is found on the ground below the trees,
on dead leaves, and on the withered
grass. It would therefore, after all that
has been said on this subject, be super-
fluous to caution the farmer against let-
ting such litter remain, and, for the
above reasons, to keep his orchard land
always in a state of cleanliness and good
order. Dead hedges should at all times
be as much avoided as possible ; my rea-

107

ders will probably conceive I am descend-
ing into particulars too minute to be
worth notice, but I am certain that to
those who may apply witli diligence to
this subject, they will be found reason-
able. Grass in orchards should always
be kept eaten down as much as possible,
and in the winter season in particular;
perhaps geese are of all other animals
the best inhabitants of orchard land. It
should therefore be particularly noticed,
that for the reasons above recited, all
dead wood should be cut from the trees,
all leaves and other rubbish carefully re-
moved from the surface and burnt, as the
best mode of establishing that system of
cleanliness in this department which is
necessary above all other things. *

* The late Dr. Roxburgh, who had the care of
the botanic garden at Calcutta, was some years
ago desirous of taking out from this country a
quantity of plants, and accordingly, had them
planted in boxes of mould, and he chose rotten
leaves and wood to put underneath, to serve as a
draining for the boxes, saying that as these became
decomposed, they would serve as food for the roots
better than potsherds which are usually used. He
V f)

108

The protection against trees being
shaken by the wind, or against cattle,
should be such, if possible, as would
not serve for shelter to insects, and be
usually v/ashed with the same materials
as above described. Although it is not
to be supposed that the eggs will in all
cases be affected by this application, yet
if it is used about the time of the insects
hatching, it is likely the young brood
may be killed thereby.

The practice of ablaqueation, which is
stated to have been common with an-
cient gardeners, will be very applicable in
the present day. There does not appear
to be any mode more likely to get the
better of the evil occasioned by the aphis
lanata ; the roots of trees affected by this
insect, should therefore be laid bare in
the winter season, well washed, and left
to the action of the frost, and the appli-
cation of such things as urine, night

however found, as soon as the ship reached a
warm climate, that innumerable insects bred in the
boxes, and he cautioned me, in a letter on that sub-
ject, and also the publick, from using such again.
See TransactioDB of Society of Arts, Vol. 27.

soil, hogs dung, &c. laid round tiiem
in a moist state, so as to keep this part Of
the trees perfectly clean from this pest.

The wire worm is an insect much com-
plained of by farmers whenever they
turn up land that has been cultivated with
clover or grass, and it in general does
great injury to the corn crop which suc-
ceeds. It should be noticed that clover, or
other plants of such description, give
protection to this insect ; it is bred in
the roots of these plants, and the land
is so well stocked with it, that it attacks
the corn and other succeeding crops
yery much to their injury. Land of this
description is therefore unfit for corn im-
mediately on breaking up. Turnips or
potatoes are not so liable to injury from
this insect, but the best preventive is
probably a summer fallow, and burning
the rubbish on the land before cropping,
by which means the eggs which arc laid
in the stalks are destroyed, and the live
worms die for want of nourishment. ISoot
and lime will also kill this destructive
worm ; before breaking up old lays, it
should be always a point with the farmer

110

to examine the then existing crop, and
observe if any of these insects are in the
roots and stalks, and if so, to apply the
above as a preventive previous to sow-
ing a crop of grain in the land. Nothing
but the preventing such a pest as this
insect, will justify the fallowing of land
according to our improved system of agri-
culture ; in this case, however, it is indis-
pensable. May not this insect, which is
now more prevalent among our crops of
grain than ever, owe its prevalence to the
system of fallowing and burning the re-
fuse of such crops being nearly exploded?
Since the foregoing pages have been
printed, I have this evening, SOth Nov.
1815, passed through Covent Garden,
and seen upwards of 1000 casks of apples
that have been imported from France,
and not less than an equal quantity heap-
ed together in warehouses near Fleet Mar-
ket, containing in the whole not less than
40,000 bushels. The fruit itself consists
of fine specimens of several varieties,
which appear with us nearly extinct, and
these are grown mostly on the opposite
coast to this country j and as there must

Ill

be some cause for the abundant crop lit
that country in a season when we have
scarcely any, would it not be adviseable
for our agricultural societies, to send over
some intelligxmt person to inspect the na-
ture of the orchards in that country, and
if possible endeavour to ascertain in what
the difference of culture consists ? Some
writer on agriculture, I think Mr. Young,
recommends to young farmers at certain
seasons to " take their nags and see w^hat
their neighbours are about ;'* would it
not be equally prudent for the growers
of fruit here to endeavour to find out
what their rivals on the other side of the
channel are doing ? The fruit I have
this evening seen, is, at a moderate cal-
culation worth twenty thousand pounds,
at the price it is selling for in the London
markets, and this has been paid for in
hard cash, to those who are our political
enemies.

The Golden Pippin, Royal Russet,
Pome Grise, Golden Russet,

Holland Pippin, Piles' Russet,
Cockle Pippin, Golden Rennet,
Wheeler's Russet, Ferns Pippin,

112

were among the sorts I noticed. There
are also some other very fine-looking
varieties which are new to my view,
but none appear better than the above,
which are fine in the extreme.

I am aware that the speculative theo-
rist will suppose that this difference is
more the effect of climate or chance*,

* It 13 usual with human nature on the first ap-
pearance of any strange phenomena, to endeavour
to account for them offhand. Many persons ai'e apt
to attribute the change in this state of our trees to
an alteration in climate. And some very curious
reasons are given by a gentleman of Worcestershire,
who from the appearance of our fruit trees, very
ingeniously attributes such change to a greater
degree of moisture being exhaled from the in-
creased number of exotic plants that have lately
been introduced. Vide I. Williams, Esq. on Climate.

Others, considering the great quantity of ice that
has accumulated of late years between Greenland
and Iceland, and which it is said has produced an
alteration for the worse in the climate of Iceland,
have supposed that it affects even that of our own
island; but as we pursue the thread of these inge-
nious reasonings, we find many knots that few per-
sons are able to untie, by cutting any one of which
the argument becomes confused, and consequently
the clue is lost altogether; — the small age of reason

]\3

than the consequence of France having
aclo])ted better management. Bat I con-
sider it otlierwise : tJie failure of our crops
is not front any such casualty ; it is from
the neglected state of our fruit trees alto-
gether. During the late arduous struggle
in which this country has been engaged,
from the interrupted state of the world
by war, our articles of common consump-
tion have necessarily increased in value,
as well from the quantity in demand,
as from the want of the usual import-
ation, and, also not a little from the waste
attending the supply of our army and
navy abroad.

allotted to human life does not allow of a com-
parison in this way, with the long data of four thou-
sand years.

Is it not, therefore, a wonder that such change
should have been left for the present age to dis-
cover ; our forefathers, who have been remarked
for studying convenience, have not been noticed
to change their cloathing, for if we compare the
costume of the present and late ages with the dresses
of former times, although we find it difFercntly cut
in fashion and shape, yet it does not appear to have
been less calculated to resist the cold.

114

We have therefore seen wheat raised
to four times its natural value, and as this
appears almost generally to be the standard
of regulation as to price, all other neces-
saries have got up in proportion. Rents
have been raised to the grower, taxes in-
creased to the landlord, and wages to our
manufacturing community, and all this
has been supported and kept up by the
advantages of external commerce during
"war. France fortunately for her, has been
without the means of corresponding com-
mercially with the world, and has been
forced to turn her attention to agricul-
ture.

From the above remarks it may be
supposed that I do not duly appreciate
the improvement of our own system of
agriculture, but not so, no man is more
convinced of the improved state of hus-
bandry in many respects : all our atten-
tion from the above causes, has however
been directed to the growth of grain and
to the fattening of cattle. The former
from its high price enabled the farmer to
cultivate land with wheat, which if it pro-

lU

(lucetl only half a crop paid him, and
he could afford to fatten cattle with ex-
pensive dainties. Now this succeeded
so well that he looked no further. Every
other domestic advantage was lost sight
of, and fruit trees in particular, which I
think is sufficiently proved by the fore-
going remarks.

Now the agriculture of France has
been improved from views of a different
nature, namely, the necessities of the na-
tion, and hence every department has
been regularly encouraged and assisted,
and her fruit trees in general, will be
found to have had the proper treatment
they required, and now that the peace
has given her the opportunity of sending
some of her produce over, she has, in more
than one instance, proved to us, tliat al-
though trade is a valuable blessing to any
country, that does for the time being en-
jov it; yet agriculture .is the only cer-
tain wealth of a nation, and the sheet-
anchor of its people.

Time has been when it might not
have been prudent to have made such

116

Compai'isons, or at all events a person
broaching them would have been branded
with the namesof'croaker or Jacobin, but
fortunately for the world this scare-crow
hydra has lost its charm, and without
presuming to construe the unavoidable
errors or misfortunes of late times into
blame to any party, we hail the time now
approaching when the system of warfare
will be changed for that of internal and
domestic improvement ; and when those,
as I before observed, who can point out
deficiencies in order to guard against
their pernicious results, may without
blame make them known.

It is not the bad system of growing
apple trees alone that requires better ma-
nagement, we have others equally hurt-
ful in their consequences which call for
amendment, and the time is come
when we may hope to see these things
properly conducted, and mankind taught
to tread those paths which are best
suited to their respective pursuits.

11?

THE BEST KIXDS OF FRUIT TREES
IN GENERAL.

TO pretend to enumel'ate all the dif-
ferent kinds of apples grown for the
pnrj)oses of cider, would be a task no
less useless tlian diificult, for from descrip-
tion alone no one could make them out,
their number is immense, as every dis-
trict has some one favourite fruit for that
purpose, but in general the cider is made
of many sorts, mixed indiscriminately to-
gether. As the attention of the growers
of fruit has lately been called up by the
spirited exertions of T. A. Knight, Esq.
both in his exertions in forwarding the
publication of Pomona Herefordiensis, as
well as by his labour and attention to
this particular in his place as president
of the Horticultural Society of London,

118

we may shortly expect that a revolution
in the choice of sorts will be produced.

I shall, however, for the sake of such
of my readers as may not have had the ad-
vantage of consulting the Pomona Here-
fordiensis, take the liberty of transcrib-
ing the characters given of such apples
as are there inserted, together with such
observations as I have myself been able
to make. It must be observed, that no
persons can possibly make themselves
acquainted with the real merits of apples
from a slight acquaintance ; there are so
many contingents for consideration, that
the same variety must be seen growing
in many different places. The trees
should also be of diflerent ages, as that
circumstance, and the difference of the
soil, will greatly alter the flavour of fruit.
Few persons have lived and enjoyed suf-
ficient advantages in this way, to enable
them to form a complete judgment of
the merits of fruits in general ; and these
considerations, added to the strange con-
fusion in the nomenclature, has rendered
the work of description very uncertain.

3

119

CIDER APPLES.

* Herefordshire Redstreak. An old
fruit which can no longer be propagated.
This was once much esteemed for cider.
The specific weight of the juice when re-
cently expressed was .1079.

The Golden Pipjmi, This is evi-
dently getting into decay from age, it
has for many years retained the character
of a prime cider apple.

The Fox Whelp. Many of the old
trees of this variety still appear healthy and
vigorous, though grafts taken from them
do not grow well, some attempts are
nevertheless still made to propagate it.
The specific gravity of the juice of healthy
fruit I found to be .107(3, and in small
and shrivelled fruit to be . 1080.

* Vide Pomona Herefordiensis.

120

The Red Must, or Musk. The ci-
der made of this apple used to be much
esteemed, though latterly it has been con-
sidered liglit and thin. Two varieties of
this apple, the red and white, are still found
in the orchards of Herefordshire, but this
alone is the only one that has any appear-
ance of health. The specific gravity of
the juice has never exceeded .1064.

The Hagloe Crab. Scarcely any apple
affords a finer cider than this. The
trees are rarely very productive of fruit,
and this variety does not succeed gene-
rally, it being only in certain soils and
situations that it is capable of acquiring
maturity and perfection. The specific gra-
vity of the juice has not been mentioned.

The Loa7i Pearmain. This variety
as a cider apple is stated to contain a
considerable portion of saccharine matter
with a good deal of astringency ; qualities
considered necessary in making good ci-
der, hence it is supposed to possess much
merit for that purpose. The specific gra-

121

vity 1072. N.B. This is a very different
variety from the Loan's pearmahi of the
Kentish orchards, which is much larger,
more incHned to an oval shape, and
of a more dull red colour ; it is however
nearly green when grown under the shade
of the leaves. This variety keeps till
April, and is till that season a very useful
fruit, both for the desert and culinary
purposes, and is justly esteemed by the
growers of fruit in that county on ac-
count of its great tendency to bear fruit.

The Orange Pippin. Is cultivated in
dil!er(}nt parts of the county of Here-
ford J but such is the confusion of names,
owning to the multiplicity of apples in cul-
tivation, that the fruit figured is very dif-
ferent from the orange pippin of the
county of Kent, and has all the appear-
ance of the Royal pearmain of that county.
The specific gravity of its juice is about
.1074.

If I may judge from this variety, whicfe
is plentiful in Sussex, where it is a most
abundant bearer, it is a fruit of all others

1«2

that merits cultivation by the proprietors
of orchards.

The Wood Cock. The specific gravity
of its juice is about .1073, but in conse-
quence of the age of this variety it has
long since ceased to deserve the attention
of the planter. The name is supposed to
have been derived from some imaginary
resemblance of the form of the fruit and
firuit-stalk, which has a particular twist
and a certain protuberance, which may
in some instances be supposed to have a
distant resemblance to the head and back
of a woodcock.

The Forest Stire. Once a very cele-
brated fruit, but it has been remarked
to be rapidly decaying.

The FoJcJey Apple. The specific gravity
of this fruit is .1080, and it obtained the
annual premium of the society in 1808.

The Fawsan. The specific gravity of
its juice is .IO76, but the trees are

12S

generally unproductive, and the fruit docs
not ripen well except in certain situations.

The Best Bache. The specific gravity
of its juice is .1073 ; is principally in
cultivation in the south-east of Hereford-
shire where it is now considered as a good
cider fruit.

The Yellow Elliott. An apple in high
estimation ; the specific gravity of its
juice is .1076. It once occupied its pro-
per place at the yeoman's table, but on
which it has given place to very inferior
liquors, under the borrowed name of wine.

The Old Quining. This apple is now
in the last stage of decay, and like the
redstreak and golden pippin has sur-
vived its good qualities for the press.
Mr. Knight states the weight of its ex-
pressed juice at about .1073.

The Bennett Apple. This has been
chiefly cultivated in the deep strong soils
of ihe south-west part of Herefordshire,

124

where, in conjunction with other varieties,
it contributes to afford cider of great
excellence. It is common in that part
of the county called the Golden Vale,
and which is the only part of that county
that at tlie present day can be said to
produce good liquor of this sort.

Mr. Knight says it was known before
the seventeenth century, although it is
not mentioned by any of the writers on
this subject at that time.

The specific gravity of its juice is
also .1078.

The Siberian Hartey. This variet}'
is the offspring of a seed of the yellow
Siberian crab, and the pollen of the last
mentioned, and it possesses the hardy
character of the former with the saccha-
rine juice of the Golden Harvey: the
gravity of its juice was .1091.

Steads Kernel Apple. Much prized on
account of its astringency and saccharine
juice, its specific gravity is .1074 ; it is a
new variety, and highly deserves culture.

125

The Garter Apple. Has -been much
cultivated, but the specific gravity of its
juice does not exceed .1066 ; yet. when
mixed with other varieties, it contributes
to atfbrd excellent cider.

The Cawarne Red. This apple is greatly
inferior to many of the older varieties.
The specific gravity of its juice never
exceeded .1069. It is still capable of
being cultivated, but its merits are not
equal to several other varieties which have'
recently been obtained from seed.

The old Pearmain, This is the win-
ter pearmain of the Kentish fruit gar-
dens, it is an excellent apple, and well
calculated for the press or the desert.
Mr. Knight found the weight of its juice
.1079, and he says it has almost disap-
peared in the orchards of Herefordshire ;
but, however, Covent-garden market ex-
hibits this fruit in good seasons in great
abundance, and we observed it in a fine
state of preservation among the varieties
of apples brought from France.
G 3

126

The Friar. The trees of this variety
are of vigorous growth and productive
of fruit, so that it frequently produces
a cask of good cyder, but from its old
age, an orchard now planted with it would
probably soon exhibit symptoms of the
debilities of old age.

I shall also give in detail, a description
of a few new varieties, which, from their
good properties, are now in considerable
demand, and conclude with a list of such
as are worth attending to for general cul-
ture, for, as I before observed, the num-
ber of kinds cultivated in the nurseries
near London are superfluous in the ex-
treme. In my experimental orchard, I
have every sort that I can get with any
character tending to recommend them,
amounting to nearly 300 sorts. Several of
which having bore fruit 1 have put out of
the collection, by cutting down and graft-
ing the trees afresh with such sorts as I
found better worth keeping.

The kinds of fruits, tlieref ore, which I
•hall give in the following lists will be

1«7

only such as [ can recommend from my
own personal knowledge of them. My
intention is to publish from time to tim«
the merits of other kinds, as I may find
them turn out on a fair trial. And as
inclination to bear is a very necessary
qualification in all fruit, I shall be par-
ticular in recording this circumstance ;
but it is not the experience of only
one or two seasons that will justify the
giving of the character of fruit, and the
recommendations of many persons should
not be heeded, when such are only drawn
from local instances, which are not in
general proper proofs of merit, as soil,
situation, and particular seasons, will
much alter the course of nature in these
things.

The Downton Pippin. Mr. Knight, in
his communication to the Horticultural
Society, says of this fruit, it is equally
well calculated for the desert, the press,
and for every culinary purpose, where a
large size is not required ; and 1 do not
know any apple which can be brought to
e 4.

in

market at any given price, with so much
advantage to the cultivator.

The Grange Apple. A fruit of great
beauty, and similar in colour to a very
fine golden pippin, it ripens early in
October, but remains sound till February:
it is the offspring of the orange pippin,
fertilized by the pollen of the golden
pippin. *

The Bringewood Pippin. Its form
and character are those of a large and
flat golden pippin, with russet stripes :
it is a fruit of exquisitely fine flavour, and
keeps late, I have known it saved till
February, and the flavour not impaired
by keeping.

The Worlmsley Pippin. This apple
ripens in the end of October, and many
of my friends think it the best apple of
its season : it is very large, and in the

* Pomona Herefordiensis, and Mr. Knight in
Trans. Hort. Soc

129

consistence and juiciness of its pulp, it
more nearly resembles the New-town
pipf)in of America, than any other ap-
ple with which 1 am acquainted. This
does not keep, but is very fine when in
season. I find tiie trees are given to bear
profusely.

The Golden Harvey, or Brandy Apple,
This variety is generally esteemed in
Herefordshire the best fruit of its spe-
cies, and I tiiink with reason. Its season
commences in November, and it remains
in perfection, with proper attention, till
May. Tliis variety has long been culti-
vated, and it has, consequently, passed
the period of youth and vigour, but
it is still perfectly well calculated for gar-
den culture. A coloured *plate of this
variety is given in the eighth number of
the Pomona Herefordiensis, with that of
its offspring, the Siberian Harv.ey, to
whicli alone it is inferior in richness and
in the lng!i specific gravity of its juice. It
is of little value, except for the press.

G 5

ISO

The Elten Golden Pippin. This is a fin*
variety of the old golden pippin, and
somewhat like it in appearance ; it is si
fine fruit, but not equal in productiveness
to that of the Downton pippin. It is a
new variety, produced in the nursery late
Mr. Knight's, at Elton, but we do not
exactly know its pedigree, it is undoubt-
edly one of his new seedlings.

The Spring Grove Codling. This is a
new fruit, produced also by the labours
bf Mr. Knight. Sir Joseph Banks, in a
communication to the Horticultural So-
ciety, p. 197> says, that " this apple
" baked in the beginning of September
** had all the quickness and flavour of
*' the best winter apples. All who tasted
" the pye, agreed they had not met with
" any autumn apple, which for baking
** could be compared to this new one.
•♦ Mr. Knight informs me, that it is
** ready for use in the month of July,
" when London geese are probably better
*« than at any other season, but when the
** old Engli&h accompaniipeot gf apple

ISl

" sauce was not, till Mr. Knight fur-
" nished us with the apple, possible to be
" obtained ; in this point of view, it
** becomes an addition of importance
*• to the old English kitchen, the
" cookeiy of which true Englishmen
" prefer to French ragouts or Spanish
'♦ olios.'*

The Yellow Ingestrie Pippin. Similar
in colour and flavour to the golden pip-
pin, but ripens early in October; a verjF
productive variety, and amongst the
best of its season. Although this is
ripe in October, it will keep sound and
good till March ; it is nearly allied to
the golden pippin, and considered one
of the handsomest fruits which has been
grown.

The Red Ingestrie Pippin. Ripens a
fortnight later than the yellow, and re»
sembles a good deal in colour, a very ripe
golden rennet. This and the preceding
variety sprang from two seeds of the
same apple which occupied the same cell.
G 6

132

Their names are derived from Ingestrie,
(pronounced Ingstre,) the seat of the
Earl of Talbot.

The Court of Wyck Pippin. This is a
fine thriving variety and not an old fruit,
it is mucli cultivated in Somersetshire,
and is highly prized. This appears more
like the golden Harvey than any other
apple, and I should think, is really an
improvement on that fruit. I brought
some of the fruit to London, and on
giving it to several persons who are
judges, it was pronounced one of .the best
apples. This, as well as the golden Har-
vey, partakes much of the nature in all
respects, of the old golden pippin, except
in colour j the golden Harvey has a fine
yellow russet on a red, and the court of
Wyck is so much like it, that except in
its being a more freely growing tree,
and the fruit somewhat larger, no one I
think could tell any great difference in the
two.

Next to the court of Wyck pippin, is
the Canbury Pippin^ possessing all the

133

good properties of desert liuit, and one
ill particular, that it is of all others, the
Downton pippin excepted, the most pro-
ductive bearer.

The New Ribsione Pippin. Is a fine large
striped apple very little inferior to the
Ribstone pippin which was its parent.
The seed of this kind was sown in the
garden of thellight Hon. the EarlofEgre-
mont, and has produced an offspring so
much like itself that I should scarcely
have supposed them to have been differ-
ent. The tree, however, from which I
have raised my own stock from buds and
grafts is on its own bottom. I can con-
gratulate the amateurs of fruit, on this
new variety, not that I believe it to be
better than its parent fruit, but on our
having an apple possessing all the su-
perior properties of that fruit in a young
healthy seedling tree, a circumstance of
the gj eatest moment, as from it we may
hope that prince of apples can be kept
With us for many years to come in a
healthy state. The good properties of

134

the llibstone Pippin are so well known
that it would be superfluous to descant
on the merits of its flavour ; and this
seedling offspring is in all respects, as far
as I have yet seen, equally as good.

The Petworth Nonpareil. Is a rus-
set green apple, and partakes much of the
acid of the nonpareil combined wath a fine
flavour peculiar to this variety. It has the
property of keeping till late in the spring,
the first fruit twoyears ago I had kept good
till the 20th of April. It is a good bearer,
for even this season the tree produced a
crop, part of which I have tasted, and
am not only confirmed in my opinion as
to the merits of this apple, but have been
corroborated in the same by others who
are probably better judges than myself.

A Seedling from the Newtown Pippin,
partaking in appearance much of the na-
ture of the French crab. It is most cer-
tainly a fine keeping variety, and the tree
remarkable for hardiness and disposition
%o bear. At this time, 1 6th October, 1814,

135

I find it full of fruit buds althou£]^h the
tree is not more than six or eight years
old at farthest.

The Pelxvorth Pippin. A small brown
fruit, in shape very like the Hall-door
apple, its flavour is however superior to it,
and it keeps longer. It is quite a young
tree, but I cannot speak as to its property
for bearing until 1 have had more ex-
perience ; if, however, nothing should
be found to depreciate its merits, it bids
fair to be one of the best apples I have
ever seen.

The Scarlet Nonpareil. Is also a fruit
of considerable value ; it was raised
from seed at Kimpton Park, near Sunbury,
a few years ago. It has been noticed for
some time that the old nonpareil has got
into disuse from age and its being sub-
ject to canker, the cause of its not suc-
ceeding in many instances. The scarlet
variety is however but little inferior both
in flavour and produce to the old sort, so
that we have in it a valuable substitute.

136

La Pomme Grise. A variety between
the golden pippin and the nonpareil
is a fruit of great merit.

Padley's Pippin, was raised by the
gentleman of that name, who has the care
of Hampton-Court Gardens. Its merits
are similar to those of the pomme grise,
which it resembles. One difference in
the two varieties is, that this does not
keep quite so long, which renders it of
course inferior to that apple.

The Carlisle Codlin is a fine dwarf va-
riety of the English codlin, and remark-
able for producing fruit on small dwarf
trees.

137

List of Apples worth cultivating.

N.B. — Those which have an asterisk affixed are
for the desert. — The months indicate the time each
variety lasts in season.

* Aromatic Pippin - October

* Bernstorf Apple - Jan. to March

^Cockle Pippin - Oct. to April

Catshead - - Oct. to Dec.

Cockagee - - Cider

Dutch Codlin - June and July

English Codlin - June and July

*Fearns Pippin - Nov. to Feb.

French Crab - Oct. to Aug.

*Fre7ich Pippi?i - Oct. to Dec.

* Golden Pippin - Dec. to May

* Golden Rennet - Dec. to Feb.

* Golden Russet - Dec. to Ajoril
Hall Door - - Jan. to March
Herefordsh. Pearmain Dec. to March
Holland Pippin - Dec. to April
Hawthorndean - October

* June-eating - - June
Kentish Fillbasket - Aug. to Oct.
Kentish Pippiii - Dec. to May
Kitchen Rennet - December

*7/<?rc7>'5 Incomparable December

1S8

^Leadington - December

Loan's Pearmain - Sept. to May

Lemon Pippin - Dec. to March
Minier' s Dumpling Ap. Oct. to March

Margaret - - August

* Margin - - Nov. to March

* Newtown Pippin - Nov. to Jan.

* Nonpareil - - Nov- to May

* Nonsuch - - Aug. to Oct.
Norfolk Paradise - Dec. to May
Norfolk Beqfin - Dec. to Aug.
Norfolk Storing - Dec. to Aug.
North's Crab C for preserving ) Oct.

*Pigeonette - - October

* Pile's Russet - Oct. to April
Quince Apple - Oct. to March
Royal Pearmain - Jan. to March
Royal Russet - Oct. to April

*Ribstone Pippin - Oct. to April

Red Quarantine - Oct. to Jan.

Red Calville - Sept. to Oct.

*Syke House - Jan. to April

Wheeler's Russet - Oct. to May

White Calville - Oct. to March

139

All the above sorts I have growing,
and believe the whole of them to be worth
notice : I have retained the golden pippin
in the list, because I have seen it is so fine
this season among the fruits from France.

PEARS.

WHAT has been said with regard
to the orchard culture of apples,
will in general apply to pears, but as this
kind of fi'uit tree is more hardy and longer
lived, it is not quite so subject to insects
and disease. It is in general longer in
getting into a state of fruit bearing, but
it will exist for centuries and still keep
its health, productiveness, and vigour.

In the garden culture of this fruit it
very frequently occurs that trees on walls
will get into a state of luxuriance, which
scarcely any thing known will check, and
in til is state the trees bear very spar-
ingly and seldom any where but at the
extremities; it is absolutely necessary in
these cases to examine very minutely

140

the cause of the luxuriance, for it may
be occasioned either by the nature of the
tree itselfi or by the soil. I have known
the swan's egg pear, which is an early
bearer*, shooting so excessively luxuriant,
that it grew thirty or forty feet previously
to its ever producing fruit, making
shoots of great length and proportionate
strength, after these had reached the top
of the w^all, the ends of them were turned
over, from which circumstance these
shoots received a check in the circulation,
and it was supposed that the previous
barrenness of the trees was occasioned by
the richness of the soil. Recourse was
had therefore to taking up at the distance
of twelve feet from the trees a deep trench
ten feet wide and of considerable depth,
which being wanted for a gravel road, was
filled with sand stone ; during this opera-
tion the roots were a little cut. This
mode had the desired effect ; it produced
shortly afterwards an immense crop, on
the above described turned shoots, and

* Producing fruit in a young state of the tree.

141

the trees have continued every season to
bear fruit, which is now nearly thirty
years since.

It sometimes happens that a tree in a
soil which is not rich, may take to grow
very luxuriantly from the nature of the
stock on which it had been grafted,
the roots of this having probably ex-
tended to very considerable distances
in search of food, which is not an un-
common case. This seems to have been
particularly noticed by our older gar-
deners, and they have given us some cu-
rious antidotes to luxuriance, one of which
was to dig under the roots, and place im-
mediately below the stem of the trees a
dead dog, cat, or any other animal.
This has been said to answer the pur-
pose, as was once the case at Watford.
It should be observed that it was not
owing however to the animal, but was
probably the effect of taking out the earth
and laying bare the roots ; a mode that
has for many ages been practised for such
purposes, but not known in the present
day. It was probabl}' ordered that a dog
or some other large animal should be laid

142

under the stem, in order that the roots
should be sufficiently uncovered. We
also find in an intelligent old book, the
following receipt, " To hasten and helpe
" forward a tree in bringing forth his
" fruit, which is long before it bears anie
" thing, you must make a hole with a
** wimble in the thickest branch of his
" root without boring it through, and in
" the hole which you have made, put in
*' a staff or stop it with wax, afterward
** cover the root over againe and the tree
" will bear the year following."

This only goes to the checking the
luxuriance by cutting off the usual quan-
tity of supply of food bythus wounding the
roots. These matters if managed judici-
ously are useful, but we are so much
out of the habit of having recourse to
them, that on the first sight we consider
only the application, not the consequent
effects it is intended to produce.

As apple-trees are made dwarfs by graft-
ing on the paradise stock, the pear by
using the quince for the stock will be
made also to bear in a small state. It
12

143

will be advisable always to take the grafts
from such trees as have bearing wood on
them, when it can be done. Trees of this
description will admit of the training as
described for the dwarf apple I before
noticed.

For the best new kinds of pears of
which we have any account, we are in-
debted to Mr. Knight ; namely,

The Elton Pear. This variety it
appears sprung from a tree growing at
Elton, late the residence of Mr. Knight;
it ripens in the autumn, about the time
of the orange Bergamot, at which season
it is remarkable that we have few good
pears in season ; this, however, at that
time, when gathered and left a few days,
is equal in flavour to a well-ripened Cres-
sanne, it however does not remain long
m season ; but this may be prolonged by
putting them in close dry jars, and placing
them either under ground, or in si dry
cellar.

The Red Doyenne Pear. This has
been mentioned also in the Hoj-t. Soe.

144

Transactions, and been much praised ; it
is not however found to be good in all
situations.

I shall mention a few of the leading-
kinds of pears cultivated for perry, but
the variety and nomenclature of this
fruit I am sorry to say is more confused
than even that of the apples. Almost
every parish has its different names for
their favourite fruits, and very often dif-
ferent names are applied to the same fruit,
only a few miles distant.

PERRY PEARS.

The Teinton Squash Pear. The perry
made from this pear has been said to be
sold for Champagne, to which it is much
allied in colour and brightness. The
trees of this variety are supposed to be in
the last stage of decay.

The Long Land Pear. This is a com-
mon pear by the road sides in Worcester-
shire, and also in Herefordshire j it is very

145

hardy and productive. Mr. Kiiiglit in
the Pomona Hercfordiensis, states the spe-
cific gravity ofits juice to be 1063.

The Holmore Pear. This is also re-
commended as a good pear for the press,
the specific gravity of its juice is about
1066.

The Hnff-Caj) Pear. The perry made
from this pear has been long celebrated
for its richness and great strength, its fla-
vour has been considered scarcely infe-
rior to any. Mr. Knight states the juice
to be about IO70.*

The Bar land Pear. This has also for
many years been considered a valuable
perry pear and is very productive, many
thousands ofhogsheads have been sentfrora
the cider counties in a favourable fruit

* I have observed this fruit growing in the neigh-
bourhood of Tonbury, at a village called Rochford,
where it is called the llochford Longtail. So much
is the nomenclature of fruit confused.

H

146

season. The specific gravity of this juice
is estimated at about IO7O.*

* I have taken the liberty of transcribing the se-
veral accounts of the juices of those fruits as they
may be depended upon, and as it appears to be the
best criterion to judge of the saccharine nature, and
consequently the principal basis of a spirituous li-
quor, and as being a ready mode by which persons
may ascertain the power of any other kind on
comparison, but it must be observed, that this prin-
ciple alone is not sufficient to constitute good Perry.
It is necessary that a certain degree of astringency,
which, uniting in chemical combhiation with parti-
cles from the atmosphere, on the juice being freshly
expressed, constitutes what is considered the best
liquor of this nature.

It is a curious phasnomenon in chemical attrac-
tion, that the juice of a pear, which when expressed
by the action of the teeth alone, may be found so ex-
tremely crude and austere as to render it difficult
to swallow, (and hence the name given of choke pears,
to many of this kind of fruit), should, as soon as
the pulp is crushed, be found to change colour, and
by uniting with the oxygen of the atmosphere, to
almost instantly change, and become sweet ; and in-
deed it may be remarked that the fruits which form
the best perry are crude and unpleasant to the taste
so that nothing short of absolute experien'ce after
fermentation will enable a person to judge of its
▼alue in this point of view.

147

PEARS IN GENERAL CULTIVATION.

JVhen w occurs in the follcnxing lists, it denotes
such as arc best adapted to training on walls.

Autumn Be?^"'amot
Bergamo t de Bugy w
Bishop's Thumb
Brown Beurre w
Cardiliac (for baking J
Catharine
Chaumontelle
Citron de Cannes
Colmar w
Cresanne w
Cuisse Madame w
Dutch Bergamo t
U Eschasserie w
GanseVs Bergamo t
St. Germains w
Golden Beurre
Green Chisel
Jergonelle
Little Lard
Orange Bergamot

H 2

October
April to June
Oct. to Dec.
October
Dec. to May
Oct. to Dee.
Nov. to Jan.
July

Beg. of Dec.
End of Dec.
Mid. of Aug,
Jan. to April
Beg. of Jan.
Dec. and Jan.
Dec. to Feb.
Sept. to Dec.
Beg. of Aug.
Mid of Aug.
End of Dec.
September

148

Overaled w

Oct. and Nov.

Poire (T Aush w

Jan. to April

Spanish Boncretien

End of Dec.

Summer Bergamot w

End of Sept.

Swanks Egg

November

Z^vedale's St. Germain

December

Virgoideiise w

Beg. of Jan.

Windsor

End of Aug.

Wi7iter Boncretien w

March to June,

THE PLUM.

This fruit is not of so much concern to
the orchardist, as the kinds ah'eady men-
tioned, and we have Httle new to add to
what former writers have said on this sub-
ject ; however as I often find, that in the
planting plum trees, a wrong choice is
made of such as are placed out to grow
as standards, I shall, in the following list
of the sorts, distinguish such as will
produce fruit in that state, and such as
should be confined to the walls, or espa-
liers, of enclosed gardens.

149

Apicot Plum w
Black Damson w

Perdigron w

Blue Gage w

Imperatrice s

Perdigron w

Primordian w

Violet s

Br^ignole s
Diaper s

Fotheringham w
Green Gage w
Jaune Haiive s
X« lioyale s
X« 7^^^6 Car^bon s
Maitre Claude s
Morocco, or damask blue s
Orleans s
Karlij Orleans s
Precoce de Tours s
Pruin s

7?^^/ Bonum Magnum s
Tav/<? Pruin Damson s
White Bonum Magnum w

Bullace s

End of Oct.
End of Sept.
September
August
End of Sept.
August
August
End of Aug.
End of Sept.
End of Sept.
End of Sept.
August
Aug. and Sept.
Beg. of Aug.
End of Sept.
End of Sept.
Beg. of Aug,
End of Aug.
End of Aug.
Beg. of Aug.
End of Aug.
December
End of Sept.
December
s End of Sept.
October

H 3

150

White Damson w September

Perdigron s September

Winesour s - October

Yellow Gage w s - August

** Coe^s Golden Drop Plum. The merit
of this new variety of plum as a fruit
for the desert during winter, is a
fact with which the public are not
sufficiently w^ell acquainted. Having sus-
pended by their stalks in a dry room some
fruit of this variety, which had ripened
on a west wall in October, in the year
1808, it remained perfectly sound till the
middle of December, when it wasthoaght
by my guests and myself to be not at all
inferior either in richness or flavour to the
Green Gage, or Drap d'or Plum. I am
informed by Mr. Whitley, of Old Bromp-
ton, from whom 1 received it, that it bears
well on standard trees.*' — See Mr. Knight^
in Trans. Hort. Soc.

161

FILBERTS.

Of this fruit we have two kinds,
commonly cultivated in the South of
England, the red and the white, both
equally good, and of which the culture
is of considerable value in the county of
Kent. As these trees affect a shady
situation, they are usually planted in
the same rows as the apple trees, at about
six feet distance, so that their growth does
not impede the working of the land be-
tween the rows.

The trees usually selected in Kent for
this purpose, are raised from layers, as
being less liable to produce suckers at the
bottom, and are trained up to single stems
about eighteen inches high, when they are
suffered to branch out, and whilst young
to have three or four shoots only. When
the trees, or more properly shrubs, have
reached six I'eet high, which they com-
monly do the year after planting, the
trees are pruned every year regularly,
the same as gooseberries and currants,
H 4

152

but not by a person who ** gets into the
** middle and lays about him right and
*' left*," but by experienced men, who
make it their profession in that county :
and few gardeners who have not seen
the operatiou, would conjecture what rule
they could have for it, as the bearing-
buds of this tree are not to be distin-
guished in the usual way of other fruit.

The time, however, chosen there for
this purpose, is the month of March,
when the shrubs are in bloom ; at this
season they are regularly cleared of the
superfluous branches, and the blooming
branches left, most of which are stopped,
a few buds before the fruit. From this
management alone is the crop of nuts
usually produced in Kent, but in all
other places where they grow, this crop
is not only uncertain, but not one half so
productive, I had long been informed of
the practice of pruning, but as I had
never heard it explained, I purposely
went into the country to observe it, and

♦ Vide Mr.Knight's treatise on fruit, 4th edit. p.87.

153

was much gratified with the mode when
I saw it.

There are some fine new varieties of
nuts, between the filbert and Barcelona
nut.

The Cosford Nut, which is large, of
fine flavour, and the shell so thin, as to
be oflen broke with the pressure of the
fingers alone.

T/ie Dwarf Prolific Nut, which is also
very finely flavoured, a great bearer, and
seldom exceeds four feet in height.

The Cob Nut, is a well known large
variety, and an excellent accompani-
ment to the desert.

Filberts may be kept till quite late in
the spring, by putting them with the
husks on into jars, stopped close with
a waxed bung, and either buried in the
ground, or kept in a close cellar. I
have eaten them in the month oi' JuJy,
H 5

154

at which season, their flavour was not
worse than when fresh gathered.

Filberts.

Red - Cob-nut

White Cosford-niit

Dwarf prolific-nut

APRICOTS.

As this fruit is in its nature similar to
the peach, the same mode of culture
will apply to it, and also the same pro-
tection.

Mr. Knight is of opinion, that the
apricot stock is the best for the apricot
tree ; but I fear we shall never be able to
procure a quantity equal to the demand
for what is annually used in the nurseries
in this country. 1 find that those trees
which budded on the muscle plum
stock, to stand very well for many years;
that is not, however, the case with those

155

worked on the Brussels plum, as this
stock is very liable to decay.

Apricots.

Algiers - - - Aug.

Black - - . Aug.

Breda - . End of Aug.

Brussels - . _ Auo*.
Gold blotched leaved - - Aug.

Early Mascidine - - July.

Moor Park - - - Aug.

Peach - - Aug.

harge Dutch - - Aug.

Royal Orange - End of Aug.

Transparent - - - Aug.

Temple - - - Aug.
Roman - - Middle of Aug.

White Masculine - - Aug.

Turkey - - End of Aug.

GRAPES.

This delicious and useful fruit is but
little adapted to the open air of our cli-
H 6

156

mate, and of course we can add but lit-
tle information on this subject that will
appear new. Mr. Speechley has given us
a very complete history of this fruit and
its culture, to which I shall refer my
readers when they want to consult this
subject fully. Mr. Knight has succeeded
in raising two fine varieties, which, as
they are new, I shall give their history
in his own words as taken from the Hort.
Soc. Trans, and from a description he
gave me of them in our correspondence.

The Striped Chasselas. * ' It is a very hardy
and productive variety, and bears well in
the open air ; and in moderately warm f
situations, it will ripen sufficiently well
to afford a very palatable fruit at this
season, February 1st.'*

"This variety sprang from a seed of the
white chasselas, and the pollen of the
Aleppo grape, which readily variegates
the leaves and fruit of the offspring of
any white grape. I believe this little
grape to be better calculated for the
press in a cool climate than any we now
possess J and that if trained to low walls

157

in the warmer parts of England, it would
aftbrd a wine of considerable strength."

Grape Vines.

h, denotes Hothouse, v Vinerj/, w such as 'will
ripe?i Fruit on the open iioalL

AUcant or black Spanish - h v

Aleppo - - - h V

Black Fronfmiac ^t - - h v

Muscat uf Alearmdria - h

Prince - - - v w

Hamlnirsrh - - h v -

»

Muscadine - - h

Portuiial - - - h

'to'

Gilnmltar - - h v

Morocco - - h

Esperion - - h v

Cluster - - - w

Damascus - - • - h

Sxceet water - - v w

Tripoli - - - h

Muscadel - - h

Claret - - - h v

Chasselas - - . w v

158

Frankendale grape • - h

Genuine Tokay - - h v

Grizzly Frontiniac - - h v

Lombardy - - - h v

Malvoise - - - h v

Muscatelle - - - v

Miller's Burgundy - - w

Malmsey - - - w

Muscat of Alea:andria - - h

Parsley leaved - - v

Red Raisin - - - h v

Constantia - - h

Frontiniac - - h v

Hamburgh - - h v

Muscadel - - h

Royal Muscadine - - v w

Sir Ab. Pitche's black grape - h v

St. Peter's grape - - v w

Smyrna - - - h v

Syrian - - - - h

White Frontiniac - - h v w

Hamburgh - - h

Muscadine - h v w

Muscat - - h V

Muscat of Alea:andria - h

Raisin - - - h

159

White Nice grape v

Szveet water - - h v w

Syrian - - h

CURRANTS.

Red Black

White Champaigne

FIGS.

Those marked p being of small grcmtli and abun-
dant bearers, are proper for forcing in pots.

Black Ischia

Brown Ischia -

- P

Large White Genoa

- P

Small Black Italian

- P

Maltese

Murray

- P

Green Ischia

Madona

Common Blue -

- P

160

Bromi Naples

Hanover

Yellow Ischia

BrmisxvicJt or Hanover

Cypress

Early White

- P

Small White '^~

- P

RASPBERRIES.

Early White Red Antwerp

Double Bearing Yellozv Antwerp
Large Red S7iiooth Cane

STRAWBERRIES.

Scarlet

Surinam

Hautboy

Alpine

Black Fruited

Pine Apple

Carolina

Wood Straxvbeny

Chili

Roseberry,

161

ALMONDS.

Bitter Striped leaved

Srveet or Jordan Silver leaved

CHERRIES.

This fruit has long been a profitable
culture in this kingdom, not only for the
Lontlon markets, but also in the neigh-
bourliood of some other cities and pro-
vincial towns.

The kinds usually grown, as standards,
for Orchards have been the Mayduke and
the Kentish cherry ; the Black-heart
has also been planted, but it docs not
appear to bear that crop it was used to
do ; and the Mayduke is to all appearance
wearing out. We have of late had from
the labour of Mr. Knight, two new kinds
which bid fair to become of great service,
although we have not yet had sufficient
trial of them to ascertain if the kinds will

162

be hardy enough for orchard culture.
The grower of cherries should be parti-
cularly careful as to the stock to which it
is grafted, as no other kind is fit for the
purpose but that of the wild black cherry
and it should not be used if there is
the least appearance of wound or gum
to be perceived on any part it, for ihey
are seldom known to recover of this dis-
ease, which is very prevalent in cherry
trees.

It should be observed that the cherry
is, in the nurseries, often budded or
grafted close to the ground, and the
stems trained up to single stems, which
are formed into standard trees j now, as I
have observed before, all cultivated varie-
ties of fruit are more tender than the
wild parent ; the latter should never be
chosen in preference for orchard plant-
ing.

This fruit, I observe, is cultivated in all
kinds of soil, and does not seem at all
nice as to its selecting any particular kind
more than another.

Notwithstanding the supposed absur-

163

dities of our forefathers in gardening,
we now and then find they have been
capable of making a proper choice, espe-
cially of fruits for particidar situations,
and we observe it manifest in the cherry
mostly grown in Kent, as the Kentish
kind, which is called after that country,
is the best adapted of all we know for
orchards. The wood of this kind, which has
an horizontal habit, is very slender, and
yields an easy motion to the operation of
the wind, by which it is not broken, nor
does it become liable to the injuries
that the duke or heart kinds ; whose
wood being more robust and stiflf^
would suffer by it. The morella has
also a similar character to the Kentish
as to the wood, but the fruit is not in
general so valuable for the market.

The Elton Cherry. A fine new variety
raised by Mr. Knight.

The Black Eagle Cherry, Another fine
new black variety, and is also much
esteemed.

1(34

" The trees of both varieties (which
" are only eight years old) are at present
" trained to walls, the Elton on a north-
" west and the other on an east-north-
" east aspect ; but I am perfectly confi-
" dent that both will succeed thoroughly
" well as standards, and that the black
*' one so cultivated will prove excessively
" productive of fruit.

" The Elton cherry-tree has borne well
" but it has never loaded itself so heavily
" as the other. The Elton ripens about
" ten days before the Ambree, and the
*' Black soon after the Mayduke. The
" growth of both trees is (extremely
" luxuriant." *

The Waterloo Cherry. This is also a
fine variety, raised by the same gentle-
man, and is much praised for its pro-
ductiveness and sweet flavor.

This fiuit was produced by that gen-
tleman to the fiuit committee of the
Hort. Soc. and they found its merits so
superior, that it was generally thought the
best cherry known.

* Mr. Knight, in communication to the Hort. Soc.

165

CHERRIES.

Amhree

Aug.

Black Heart

- July

Bleeding Heart

- Aug.

Black Coroon

- Aug.

The Black Tatarian Cherry Aug.

Biggeroon or Carnation

- Aug.

Earli/ May

- June

Flander's Duke

- July

Flemish

- Aug.

Gascoign's Heart

End of Aug.

Harrison^ s Heart

July & Aug.

Holman^s Duke

- July

John TradescanVs -

- July

Kentish

- Aug.

Liikeward

- Aug. '

Mo re I la

Aug. to Oct.

iMayduke

End of June

Early Mayduke

Mid. of June

Ox Heart

- My

Late Archduke -

Beg. of July

Ronald's Superb

- July

Yellow Spanish

Aug. & Sept,

White Heart

- J«ly

166

PEACHES AND NECTARINES.

The almond appears to be the parent
of the peach and nectarine, and is its best
and most appropriate stock. These can
only be propagated by budding; for
although they will grow by grafting, they
are liable to become diseased, and to gum
at the part where the scion is fixed on the
stock. In sheltered situations, I have seen
very fine peaches produced on standard
trees in the open ground, and had a tree
growling which, for many years, produced
a considerable quantity of fruit, which
was large and of good flavour; it "was a
seedling tree, and I have retained the kind
which I now call the Botanic-garden
peach in our catalogue. In America
peach trees grow commonly in orchards,
and the principal purpose to which they
are applied, is for distilling an ardent
spirit called Peach Brandy, which the
American farmers turn to good account,
by selling it to the Indians of the back
states.

167

Our climate is nearly as far north as
the peach will ripen without artilicial lieat
and protection, it is not to be wondered
at therefore that it should be so uncertain
as to its bearing. To counteract the bad
effect caused to this fruit by the change
of weather we are so subject to in the
spring, a number of means have been re-
commended for covering the trees over
in the season of blooming and setting ot
the fruit, such as woollen netting and
bunting, ( which is a kind of thin woollen
stuff made for flags of ships) but these, at
the same time they protect the tree from
the cold winds, require in fine weather to
be removed to admit a free circulation,
and also the sun's rays, which is attended
with labour. The best mode of protect-
ing trees, in such cases, is by affording it
something that may remain on without
the labour of changing it, and a very useful
and cheap covering of this kind I have
used with great success in the long green
moss found in woods (Hypnum of several
species.) This should be laid next the
10

168

wall at tlic time the tree is nailed, and
left its full length to wrap round the
smaller branches, either by the motion of
the wind, the wet, or the frost, either of
which will operate more or less on it ; in
dry weather when the sun shines it be-
comes relaxed and spreading, gives room
for the sun and air to get to the bloom
and the young fruit, but by moisture
it becomes in some degree compressed,
and folds round the branches j it is also
the most convenient covering, approach-
ing in its nature to those operations which
the leaves perform as a protection to
the fruit in a more advanced state : it
is moreover very cheap, and very easy in
its application. After the fruit is set and
the season advances, it should be pulled
out from the branches, as it otherwise af-
fords shelter for insects and vermin when
the fruit is ripe.

I know of no convenience in modern
gardening which equals this, and it is
well worth every persons trying who has
trees to protect. It may be used with an

1(39

equal degree of success with apricots,
cherries, or otlier early fruits.

From the observations I have made on
the peach tree bearing as a standard, I
found tliat in some seasons it bore plenty
of fruit when the almond trees that grew
nearly in the same place had in general
failed ; which difference was occasioned
entirely by a frost ; for the almond will
bloom ten days before the peach, and a
difference in the weather in that interval is
often fatal to the fruit. It should more-
over be observed that they are natives of
Persia, where the seasons are consequently
more settled than in this island. In
North America also the peach trees bear
fruit in orchards, although the winter
season is so much more severe, yet when
the frost goes an immediate and uninter-
rupted spring commences, and no change
of weather occurs to prevent the regular
progress of vegetation. Those trees and
in fact most of our stone fruits are in
bloom and the germ completely set before
the leaves appear, and it is evident that the
young fruit is in a sick or languishing statQ
I

170

between that period and the commence-
ment of the leafing, wliicli affords the tree
shelter as well as promotes circulation : it
is then adviseable to afford to the fruit the
best protection we can ; and as vegetation
can only be accelerated by warmth at this
season, that mode of covering will be
found best which partakes of the me-
chanical action of leaves, it therefore a|)-
pears that the above mode of protection
is of all others that which comes nearest
to the leaves in this operation. — It is
moreover of all others the cheapest and
most convenient mode of protection.

Mr. Knight has also raised some fine va-
rieties of peaches, viz.

The Acton Scott^ and

The Downton Peach. The fruits of
both are fine and ripen early : I have trees
of both kinds.

We have most undoubtedly reason to
lament the number of kinds of peaches
with which our nurseries abound, and

171

the strange confusion in their names ;
but the following list contains those which
are usually in demand.

PEACHES.

BeUegarde, hears earlj/

Bourd'me

Botanic Garden Beach

Catharine

Chancellor

Donhle Montague

Sivalsh

Early Admirable

Ann

Avant

Neuington

Vanguard

Burple

Ford's Seedling
French Mignion

Vanguard

Galande

Grimwood^s Royal Geo

Gros Mignio)i

I 2

Mid. of Sept.

Ditto

September

End of Oct.

Beg. of Sept.

September

Ditto

Eyid of Ang,

Beg. of Aug.

August

Mid. of Aug.

End of Aug.

Ditto

September

Beg. of Sept.

September

Ditto

•End of Aug.

End of Sept.

172

Incomparable
Late Admirable

October
October

Purple

La Belle Chevreux

Beg. of Oct.
heg. of Sept.

La Belle de Vitrey
Maltese

Millet's Mignion
Monstrous Pavia of

End of Sept.
Beg. of Sept.
September

Pompone
Montagne
Montauban

End of Oct.
September
End of Aug,

Niiette
Noblesse

Beg. of Sept.
Ditto

Old Neuington

End of Sept,

Pavia Royal
Persique
Portugal Peach
Purple Avant
Rambouillet

September
Ditto

End of Sept.
End of Aug.
End of Sept.

Red Magdalen
Red Nutmeg

Beg. of Sept.
End of July

Rosanna
Royal Charlotte
■ George

Mid. of Sept.
End of Sept,
End of Aug.

' Kensington -

Ditto

Superb Royal

Mid. of Sept,

173

Teton de Venus

Beg. of Aug.

Yelloiv Alberge

Ditto

NECTARINES.

Bt^gnion

Beg. of Sept.

Claimiont

Ditto

Butilly

End of Sept.

Elruge

Beg. of Sept.

Fairchild's early

Mid. of Aug.

Genoese

September

Luccomb*s

Ditto

Murrey

Beg. of Sept.

Newingtouy early

September

Neuington, late

End of Sept.

New White Nectarine

' September

Old White

Beg. of Oct.

Peterborough

Mid. of Oct.

Roman

September

Scarlet

Beg. of Sept.

Tawny

September

Temple

Ditto

Vermasck

Ditto

Violette llative

End of Aug.

I s

174.

On the Mode of Producing new Kinds
of Apples and other Fniits from Seeds,

THE science of Botany, by which all.
the diflerent flowers which adorn
our gardens and fields are classed and re-
duced to a system, is founded on the
structure of the interior parts of each.
We know that our delightful songsters of
the woods which have been celebrated by
all our forefathers, for time immemorial,
produce their young by means oi' eggs,
but for the purpose of which it is ne-
cessary that they pair together, which
marks a period of delight to our spring
seasons. The production of singing birds
by matching goldfinches and linnets with
canary birds and others have been long
known to produce varieties between the
several kinds, which have been justly
celebrated for the improvement in their
plumage and the melody of their notes.
But it was left to the great Linnaeus,

175

the father of Botanic science, to point out
to us a mode of discriminating certain parts
in flowers and by bringing such as arc
different from each otiier into contact,
enable us to produce hybrid fruits and
vegetables, in a mode similar to the above,
and which I shall now endeavour to ex-
plain, for the information of my readers.
In the bloom of the apple-tree we find
four distinct members, i. e. that green
cup which is placed beneath the flower,
which remains till the fruit is ripe, and
forms the eye of the apple, is the first
part, which as botanists we notice, and
this we call the flower cup or calyx.'*

The tender beautiful leaves, five in
number, which constitute the principal
part of the flower in our first view, is
called the corolla."

In the centre of the flower and grow*
ing out of the calyx are observed
small pillars, which, when viewed with a
microscope, are found to be hollow, and
to contain a substance like honey, and
which is collected in considerable quan-
tities and taken away by the bees at the
I 4

176'

time of blooming, — these are known by
the name of stiles*

Independently of these are also seen
surrounding them, a considerable number
of other little pillars, formed in some
measure like pins, each bearing a small
round head, and which are in fact so
many hollow cases, which are filled with
a very fine yellow powder, and these
when taken collectively are called sta-
mens, and when the flower is in full
bloom these cases burst and this is dis-
charged. It should be observed, that
this dust which is called the pollen, is
what is also collected by the bees, and
is what these interesting creatures form
their nests and combs with, in which
they lay up their young, &c.

Now it is by a chemical combination
of these two substances that the seeds
for the reproduction of the future plant
proceeds, and it will therefore appear
obvious that by the removal of either
of these parts from the flower, that it
renders the same incapable of forming
seeds, at the same time it is worth no-

177

tice, that in some instances the removal
does not afifect the fruit, as the apple
will after such removal swell and ripen,
but in that case it does not produce any
pips or seeds, a circumstance that not
unfrequently occurs where one or other
of these necessary accompaniments to the
flower are by any cause destroyed, so
that it will be from hence seen that it is
not the fruit that is thus affected, but the
seeds which are enclosed in the pulp of
the fruit. Now it may from hence be
imagined that if one of these })aits be
removed from the flower of a crab tree,
and its necessary office as before detailed,
be performed by that from the flower
of a fine sweet apple, it may be conjec-
tured that the mixture thus formed will
produce seeds partaking of the qualities
of each, and that these seeds will be
rendered capable thereby of forming
trees, the fruit of which, will be between
the two extremes of sour and sweet,
a combination of two properties well
known to be present in all good fruits.
And it may not be foreign to our pur-
I §

17S

pose to observe, that although the above
may appear to be an operation miHta-
ting against nature, yet it is not al-
together so, for a mixture of sorts is
continually formed by the intervention
of bees, Sec. in orchards and gardens
where different varieties of fruits are
grown, hence the number of different ap-
ples produced when stocks and seedling
trees are suffered to bear fruit, and in
some instances, very valuable varieties by
this means have been produced. In mak-
ing this illustration, and taking a fruit
tree for our clue, we are under the ne-
cessity of looking to a considerable lapse
of time for the result of our experiments,
but to those who are in the practice of sav-
ing cabbage or turnip seeds for sale it is
known that they m.ust not grow any two
different sorts near to each other, lest by
such mixture the seeds so saved become
a spurious produce, which would deprive
the grower of his object. Now for the
use of such persons as may be inclined,
either from motives of curiosity or in-
terest, to try the above, I shall finish
8

179

this account by stating, that fruits in
general may be altered and frequently
improved thereby ; but it is necessary to
observe, that places where experiments
of this nature are made should be at a
distance from any other trees of the same
species, and that the two varieties thus
intended to be used should be growm very
near together; thatboth should be deprived
of all fruit buds except so many as can be
kept within the scope of the experiment.

Thus the Grainge apple and Downton
pippin were produced by Mr. Knight,
in the former instance a bearing branch
of the Orange pippin was brought in
contact with that of the Golden pippin,
and the stamens of all the flowers left on
the Orange pippin were cut away, and
thus the fruit became impregnated by
the pollen of the Golden pippin.

In the case of the Downton pippin,
there was also the bloom of the Sibe-
rian crab impregnated by the pollen
of the Golden pippin, and the experi-
ment succeeded so far that even a pre-
tliction made some years since by the

180

great Linnaeus himself, has been verified*
Mr. Knight linving remarked " That the
" opinion of that great naturahst, that
" the cliaracter of the male parent gene-
" rallypredominatedin the exterior of the
" ofispring*," was true, for both the above
varieties are perfect instances of the truth
of it. Tins hypothesis is equally illus-
trated in the new cherries lately raised
by the same gentleman. The Waterloo
and Black Eagle cherries described in the
foregoing pages were the result of two
kinds, and the Mayduke was selected
as the male parent. The trees even at
this time, although very young, may be
known by the exterior form of the wood,
and shape and situation of the buds,
particularly that of the Waterloo both at
Downton Castle on the parent tree, as well
as in the progeny therefrom in my own
nursery, which bear the very stamp and
character of the Mayduke, while the fruit
both in colour and flavour is totally dif-

* Mr. Knight, Pomona Hereford. Art. Downton
Pippin.

181

lerent, being very black and exquisitely
fine to the taste. The new varieties of
apples described as being raised at Pet-
worth, were also the produce of a mix-
ture in the above way, and although it
was not conducted with all that mechan-
ical precision which is described above, the
effect in point of produce has been equally
as interesting. The circmnstance of the
reproduction of the Ribstone pippin from
its own seeds, described in page 133 of
this work, is a singular circumstance. It
has not hitherto fallen to our lot to con-
gratulate our countrymen on the repro-
duction of the Golden pippin, which is
evidently going into decay from age.
Yet from the above we have no reason
to despair of success, as the noble and
public spirited pro])rietor of that fruit
tree having sown a considerable numbei"
of the seeds of the best Golden pippin,
which I had the honour of selecting for
the purpose, there is still hope that this
object so very much to be wished may
be obtained.

It should be observed, that it is a bles-
sing to society when men of independ-

182

ence and fortune take up experiments of
this nature, the success of which is always
a hazard. The labour attending it al-
though not great, requires to be conducted
with piecision, and the time it takes to
obtain the result is long, so that although
from the above facts, it is evident a
great improvement may be made in
following up a work which has thus
been so far crowned with success, yet
the above reasons will prove that pri-
vate individuals, or such as are engaged
in the necessary employments of an
humble station in life, cannot pursue
it without considerable loss of time,
and an expence that does not come
within the scope of men of that de-
scription.

I have therefore made the above re-
marks with the view of shewing what has
been hitherto done, and what may be still
hoped for, and I trust that this among
other domestic improvements may at a
proper time become a question of public
notice and encouragement.

183

On packing up Trees for sending to

great Distances.

I T rroqiieiiitly lia})})cns, lluit persons wish to
transmit trees and plants to a great distance,
but from doing which they are deterred by the
difficulty of packing, and the probable distance
they may have to travel.

As I was so fortunate some years ago, as to
discover a niotle of preserving such articles in
close boxes for many months, in which mode
tliey may be conveyed to almost any part of
the world, I think it may be useful to give an
account of it in this place. The Society of
Arts having at the time honoured me with a
handsome premium for making known the pro-
cess, and having printed my communication
thereon, I shall take the liberty of transcribing
it : and to those who may be thus desirous of
sending such thiny-s to great distances, or where
the ])ackage is liable to be detained, there is no
mode so easy, cheap, and convenient.

The Sphagnum palustre, which is the mate-
rial I have used for this purpose, is found iu

18 i

great quantities on all peat bogs, grotvitig
generally in the moist places. It should be
perfectly fresh, and not left any time pul-
led up before it is used for the intended pur-
pose.

I have since receiving the premium from the
Society, sent with success to the East and West
Indies, Africa, Constantinople, and to Finland,
many packages of fruit and other trees, which
have been found to succeed beyond my most
sanguine expectation, an account of which may
be seen by referring to the Trans, of the Society
of Arts, vol. XXX. p. 195 to 203.

Some years ago, I had an opportunity of
viewing a large heap of this moss which had
been collected for decorating a grotto ; and
I observed that although it had lain exposed
for several months in the heat of summer,
yet with the exception of the very outside
of the heap, its particles appeared in the same
state as when first collected, and that a gen-
tle state of vegetation was still going on. I
moreover observed, that several species of
heaths, grasses, and plants, that had been by
chant e collected in the heap were preserved,
and in several instances had the same appear-
ances as when growing, others were a little
blanched for want of light; but even these were
alive and capable of growing byproper manago-

185

ment. These circumstances led me to make
some experiments to ascertain how loiig trees of
dilierent kinds might be preserved in this sub-
stance, when excluded from the external air,
and I so far succeeded as to keep them for six
months, part of which time had been extreme
hot weather, and I had afterwards the pleasure
of getting them to grow in my garden equal to
any that had been transplanted the same season.

As I have endeavoured to discover what pro-
perty this particidar moss possesses when com-
pared with others generally used for packing
plants, I shall remark, that, as its name im-
plies, it is in a great measure an aquatic, and
consequently not liable to injury from moisture,
which it has the power of retaining in a wonder-
ful degree, whilst all the species of Hypnum
cannot be prevented from rotting, unless they
are kept perfectly dry ; and although the mosses
in general, when moistened with water, are use-
ful to wrap round the roots of trees when
packed up, yet they gradually undei'go a decom-
position, and consequently if plants were com-
pletely enveloped therein, they would decay in
time from the same cause, which I have proved
in many instances.

The manner in which I have been accustomed
to pack up plants is as follows. When the
?noss is collected from the bogs in which it

186

grows, it should be pressed, in order to drain
out as much moisture as possible, and having
boxes prepared of sufficient size for the young
trees, (which may in some instances be short-
ened in their branches), I lay in the bottom
of tlic box as much moss as will, when pressed
with the foot, remain of the thickness of four
inches. A layer of the plants should then be
put thereon, observing that the shoots of each
do not touch, and that the space of four
inches be left round the sides; after this, another
layer of moss, about two inches thick, is
placed, and then more plants ; and I thus pro-
ceed, till after the whole of the plants are
pressed down as tight as possible, and the box
filled within four inches of the top, which
space must be filled with the moss; the con-
tents are then trodden down with the foot,
and the box nailed closely up.

When trees are intended to be sent to dis-
tant countries, I should advise such to be se-
lected as are small and healthy, and when ar-
rived at their place of destination, they should
be cut down quite close, even to the second
or third eye from the graft, or in trees not
grafted, as near the former year's wood as
possible ; and having prepared beds according
to the following mode, let them be planted
therein, to serve as a nursery; for trees of

187

every description, suffer so much from remo-
val, that unless the weather is particularly
favourable, they do not recover it for some
time, even when only transplanted in their
native climate. I do not think it advisable,
therefore, to plant them at once, where they
are hable to suffer from want of water, and
other attentions necessary to their perfect
growth. I therefore recommend bccis to be
thus prepared for them ; viz.. On some level
spot of ground, mark out beds five feet wide,
and leave walks or alleys between them, of
two feet wide, throwing a portion of the earth
out of the beds upon the alleys, so as to
leave them four inches higher than the beds.

If the ground is shallow, and the under
stratum not fit for the growth of trees, the whole
should be removed, and the beds made ffood
with a better soil.

The advantage arising from planting trees
in this way is, that the beds being lower than
the walks, the water which is poured on, for
support of tlie trees, is prevented from running
off^ The plants are also less exposed to the
influence of the winds, and if a dry and hot
season should immediately follow after they
are planted, hoops covered with mats, straw,
or canvas, may be placed over them, to pre-

18S

vent tlie sun from bui'ning the plants, and
to hinder a too speedy evaporation of moisture.

In warm climates, canvas cloth will answer
best for these shades, to be fixed during the
heat of the day, so as to prevent the surface
of the mould from becoming dry, and if a little
water be sprinkled upon the canvas, once or
twice during the day, it will keep it tight, and
produce a moist atmosphere underneath, which
will greatly facilitate the growth of the plants.

These shades should be removed at the set-
ting of the sun, and the plants then watered,
when they will also receive the benefit of the
dews during the night. In the morning the
shades should be replaced, and the plants thus
protected till they can stand the open air, to
which they should gradually be enured by re-
moving the shades daily more and more, till they
can be wholly taken away.

THE END.

Printed by A. Str?han,
Printers-Street, London.

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