done in a gloomy and cloudy day now if there be none such in the season but the weather prove wholy dry and parching it is best to work somewhat early in the morning before the Sun make the day too hot and in the afternoon when the heat is abated To prevent that the heat do not so much mischeif as otherwise it would ty or hang some cabbageleaf or such like over the buds after the inoculation under this shadow will they be in some measure preserved When the weather hath been and is extraordinary dry it is of good consequence to water the stocks 2 or 3 nights before the inoculation and the like after for that by the former the bark will rise the better and by the latter the new adopted bud will receive the greater nourishment yet in the watering after there must be a caution for overdoing least insted of affording liquor to a thirsty plant you make it drunk which will appear in the spuing up of a gum at the place to the buds destruction Within ten or fourteen days if the inoculation be done before or about Midsommer the bark will happen to swell wherefore the bond must be taken off or loosned least the bud be destroyed by pinching But the true time of loosning the bond will be best known by the goodnesse and smoothnesse of the bark of the stock for some stocks such as are full of sap will in a shorter time swell out and extend the bindings when as others that are dryer and inoculated late require a longer time before that the bond will be streightned In dryer weather the bud requires the longer time in moister the shorter for unbinding It happeneth sometimes that in four or five dayes you may know whither the bud have taken or no for if then it look fresh and green as when it came of the cion it hath taken yea although the stalk of the leaf will at the touching fall off that being caused by the bruise it received either from the back of the penknife in the depression of the escutcheon or else from the streightnesse of their binding Because of the difficulty of one single bud in running through all the hazards it is necessary that three or four buds be placed on the same stock where if none have come to good the inoculation especially when you began the first early may be renewed severall times untill you are assured that one on every stock will answer your desire Rebind the buds loose c. when the weather is very wet for else the bark of the stock will open from the escutcheon After the unbinding there remaines nothing to be done till the next Autumne or Winter at which time you must cut of the heads of these stocks two inches from the bud and the next year close to the shoot that grew out of the bud then it were good like wise to cover it with loom as in grafting If you should the first year cut off the stock close to the bud 't is ten to one but that the head thereof with the bud therein will ' dy Besides the leaving of the head thus long more especially with a natural bud on it serves at the spring to convey and attract the sap into the bud that is inoculated but all other buds below ought to be rubbed of and that above too when the inoculated one hath shot two inches long After an early inoculation wherein the buds held very well that I might see varietyes I adventured to cut off the heads of some plump bark't stocks whereby it came to passe that the bud immediately sprung forth a considerable leâ—gth able enough to withstand the piercing winter yet this is not of such certainty as the not permitting of it's growth till the next spring The inoculation of Roses which most account a difficult matter comes best to effect this way for it is seldome seen that their Midsommer buds do stay so long as the spring from shooting forth such shrubs if observ'd continue always growing unlesse impeded by the Frost which is no sooner over but they even in the mid'st of winter thrust out their heads again to the often nipping of many of them amongst whom the adopted are likelyest to suffer if the head was cut off just at that winter season wherefore it is as I have found the best course to cut off their heads four or five days after the unbinding whereupon they will immediately shoot lustily enough to withstand the encounter of the winter like unto other Rose-Trees that are clipped after bearing But this is somewhat beside my purpose I now return As to the stocks whereon each kind should be inoculated see in the first Chapter Those Trees thus inoculated may even in the bud the next Autumn be removed as well as when they have grown an year or two yea I find it best so to do for there is lesse danger ln transplanting Trees such are these whose heads are cut of and they thereby pruned then those whose branches must be left at full length Yet it may prove a losse to the buyer if the bud should chance to miscarry If the winter and spring prove very frosty it is of a very great concernment to wind wisps of straw round the buds during all the season of cold for thereby the tender buds are preserved which otherwise by the peircing of the Frosts are oftentimes destroyed If such kind of weather continue long you must sometimes unwreath the straw from off the buds for an hour or two in the hottest time of the day to give them fresh air and afterwards wind them up as before Many men being ignorant of this guarding the buds have lost multitudes which held very well and continued fair a long while after the inoculation admiring in themselves why the Tree sprung not out at the season when as they were all killed the preceeding winter It will not be much from our purpose as a close to this and the other Chapters to seek out and assign for the satisfaction of some the cause why the greatest part of Trees yeild better and fairer Fruit through insition then when permitted to bear from seed Now whereas I cannot so exactly fetch the resolution hereof from the insensitive Tree itself whose method of separation avoids even the clearest eye I must by comparing Trees and animals find the full demination thereof yet so as that I abstract the same from the facultyes of sense and motion and speak of them only as to augmentation Whereas therefore it cannot be made appear that there is any great difference between a beast and a plant in their nutrition the one therefore will demonstrate and clear the other Thus then As the Chyle which is separated from the digested meat thrown into the guts for a further purification or concoction hath other vessels to secern it from it's several excrements before that it is fit for the nourishing of the particular members who in themselves likewise
dry to inoculate on Black Cherry stones prest from their juice and washt from their flesh make the only gallant stocks for all sorts of Cherrys if planted in a blackish sand as I have said in three or four year they shoot both in length and bignesse almost beyond beleif The English Cherry called the Hony-cherry is the stock whereon the earlyest May's do grow yet that fruit is not so good as that on the Black cherry Enquirie and tryall may be made how some Cherrys especially the Morisco will prove on the Rhamnus catharticus or the Harts Thorne For the bark thereof shews that they will agree well together The young plants must be constantly kept clean and sometimes the Earth between the ranks loosned by howing or rather gentle digging least they be overcome and choaked by the weeds If the young seedlings grow too thick or too close to one another pluck up some of the weakest of them and the rest will shoot the stronger but of this hereafter CHAP. II. Of the Nursery or place where young trees are to be brought up before the Translating into an Orchard c. BEfore that these seedlings be transplanted from the bed wherein they were sown it is requisite that a plot of ground to make a Nursery be chosen fit to cherish and entertain them the naturall or genuine soile of which I advise to be between or a mixture of clay and sand but therein the sand to abound if such with conveniency may be to this purpose acquired if not any Indifferent i. e. neither too fat nor faint will serve the turn However the Situation thereof should be guarded and fenced from the blasts of the North and North-Western Winds for those are the greatest destroyers of buds in Inoculation tender graftings where you intend the Nursery shall be large this choise will not be of such consequence for one Tree will guard another The place being thus chosen and designed ought the year or two preceding to have been well soil'd and till'd for corn or digg'd as for a garden and at the Michaelmas or at such time as the Crop is of before the planting Trenched i. e. digged two spit deep the upper spit of Earth being turned in the place of the lower and the lower cast in the room of the upper The Superficies of the whole lying in Plano as an Area in a Garden must immediately before or at the time of setting be spread over sufficiently with the best soil or dung such is that that cometh from the Brew-houses which soil in the Planting is to be lightly turned into the Earth more especially about the roots of the seedlings By this manner of Trenching and ordering the Nursery Trees are caus'd to improve exceedingly for the Earth which before like milk threw up and contained all it's fatnesse or cream on the Superficies now feedeth the lowest root that a young Tree is able to send forth and although to some it may seem to have a disprocortion or a part of bad mould in the midle i. e. where the roots will shoot out the second year yet may they understand that by the soaking or sinking of the soil that was laid afresh on the new Superficies and the rising or ebullition of the fat mould of the quondam Superficies now turned two spit into the Earth there will be a perfect mixture through out the whole before the first year be fully ended Besides this good mould being thus under the roots doth at once supply the stead of many dungings which though never so often repeated will not be able to descend so deep As to the objection of others and those the greatest number of men that deal in Fruit-Trees who say that by this enriching the Nursery those Trees that are fetch 't from off thence will not grow or thrive else where save in such like or better ground cause if into worse transplanted for the most part they dy I must answer this that no man unlesse very idle on ignorant and so unfit for imployment in this purpose would ever set a fruit-Fruit-Tree but would prepare the place by soil and mellowing it before hand whereby it cometâ— to passe that the Tree though brought off a rich Nursery yet is meliorated in the transplanting which lasteth for at least two years that space of time being enough to keep alive and make grow the Tree after which iâ— seldome happeneth that any dy Yea granting the supposition that the Tree is removed from better to worse I can say that it is a great furtherance to the quicker bearing of Fruit hereby the sap that in the Nursery spent it self altogether in effecting the growing of the Tree is arrested in it's speed and so digesteth and prepareth it self in the Tree for the bringing forthe of blossoms and consequently Fruit the next year aster this may be seen daily in the re-planting of Cherry Trees Moreover these people do not consider that young Trees like young cattle do desire in their first years a tender education which if not granted they are hindred or hide bound in their growth and improvement whereby it hapneth that an inconsiderable dilatation of their branches and in the end a mossinesse affects them though transfer'd to richer quarters where if they do escape those Maladves and thrive their growth will be so fast that for it no Fruit can be produc'd and which is the worst of all diseases a Canker in few years stops the career Most Apple-Trees give this experiment and observation But in these matters I do not take part with the too much inforced Nurseryes such being as lyable to reproof for their over-doing as these other censures are for their opinion in under-doing the first occasion and cause whereof was Lazinesse Having cleared the difficulties about the choise of ground for the Nursery and the due ordering thereof before planting I must now return to discourse of the work it self and before it the season or time of the year is to be considered This I find to be best and safest from Michaelmas to the midle of February when the weather is open for Frost will kill the roots in the Winter in like sort as the heat doth in the Summer The earlyer removall viz. in and about August I dislike because of the danger proceeding from the checking of the Tree before the sap be throughly hardned into wood by reason whereof the bark being then too tender withereth or wrinckleth and so becometh a dead cover when a live Tree is expected Secondly for that hereby it is hindred of a second spring Lastly because those fibers at root which usually sprout forth upon such early setting do perish in the Winter if the Frost be penetrating Yet when seedlings grow too thick and your mind is to save them all you may at any time throughout the whole Summer by the help of a scoop like a paddle after a watering take up what number you please with the Earth on their roots
and reset them in a new appointed border where with due watering and Shading they will scarce take notice of their removall unlesse it be by a faster thriving through their deliverance from the incumbrances of their fellowes and by being set at liberty in a fresher quarter The best way to preserve the close and low growers of Peach-stones is by the thus taking up of their overtoppers or as the fancy guides the lesser may be taken up and the greater stand A late removall I affâ—ct not because the Tree benummed if I may so speak by it's taking up is to seek for nourishment at the roots when it should be springing out in branches Yet in the earlyer Cherry-stocks by care do frequently grow and Crabb-stocks in the latter Now proceed I to the planting Fist let all the greatest sort of seedlings be taken or drawn up by themselves slip or prune off all the side-branches if there be any from them leaving only the middle or upright stemme standing which may be a little top't too if it be taper then cut away all the fibrous roots that the Earth may close to the main and good part of that root which commonly groweth directly downward for thereby fresh roots will spring forth at the sides and because that direct descending root shooteth most commonly deeper then the good mould extendeth which is one of the causes of barrennesse in Trees trimme also the ends when there are any of the side roots Having done thus and designed the plot in the Nursery where they should be set extend a Garden-line a crosse the breadth of the said plot at one end thereof by the guidance of which line digge a small trench not much deeper then the roots of the young plants newly prepared as afore-mentioned which you must place therein one plant half or three quarters of a foot distant from another so causing their heads to rest directly erect on the line then throw the mould mixt with the dung that was spread over the superficies of the plot as I have said on the roots and shake the plants one after the other somewhat after this loose covering that the Earth may be fitted on every of the roots and that the plants be not buryed too deep in ground after which you ought to tread the Earth pretty hard for the firmer and better closure thereof to the roots in generall but in this fixing of them there must be a regard had they stand upright by the line as at the first placing when the rank is fill'd up in this manner remove the line from thence 2 foot or a space sufficient for men to passe to and fro to inoculate grafts and prune them and for them to spread then set others in the like form as the former do thus till all the greater sort of seedlings be spent Then deal in like order with the second sort or those of the middle growth but as for the least let them grow an year or two longer in the beds where they were Sown for even the worms will turn out of the ground such tender roots then set them in like manner as the other two were before Some planters make holes by the line with a dible or settingstick made of the handle of a spade cut picked at the end into which they put the seedlings and by treading close the Earth about them But this manner of setting serves not for those plants that have side-roots because the holes without some trouble cannot be dilated to admit them neither is it altogether so good for those that can be so set because the Earth is clotted by the dibber as it maketh the hole where upon it cannot so exactly encompasse the roots unlesse with a spade or trowell it be thrust close to them which is a trouble exceeding that of making a small trench as is before directed Observe that all seedlings one time or other must be removed by reason of the direct descending roots as is above specified Those Plum-stocks you intend to inoculate Aprecocks and to graft wal-plums on as also Peaches must be set a somewhat greater distance in the rank because that their spreading ought to be low unlesse you are certain to remove them the next year after their insition keep the spaces between the ranks clean from weeds by once or twice howing them in the Summer if you have so much leasure however at the Winter fail not to digge them over a fresh for the better mixture of the Earth and soil and for the refreshing of the roots by the rain which here by hath the freer admittance into the Earth Some years when you have perceived the former dung devoured and the heart or fatnesse of the Nursery to faint by the slow shooting of the spriggs and grafts lay on fresh dung and turn it in by the said winter-digging At Al-hallontide or there about cut of all the side-branches or spriggs from the Plum-stocks Cherry-stocks every year leaving the upright one or that that is intended for to graft or inoculate on standing against another year for a leader this labour may be spared when the stocks are reserved for the wall or to be dwarfe standards in which a low grafting and inoculation is to be used The contrary kind of pruning i. c. by cutting of the erect ascending branch may be used to Crabbe-stocks and Pear-stocks for to make their bodyes grow bigge and not toppe-heavy or it is not of much moment whether you use any when that you have about two or three foot of the stocks clear bark't above the ground for that will be high enough to graft them on CHAP. III. Of Grafting and the severall fashions therein WHen the Crabb-and Pear-stocks have thus stood and grown in the Nursery two three or four years according to their improvement in bignesse then the grafting must be thought upon and effected But the Winter before i. e. between Michaelmas and St. Andrews-tide let their branches and heads be cut off an handfull or more above the smooth place appointed to be grafted on This cutting of the heads is for the better arresting the sap in the main body of the stock which doth hereby become the more turgid in it's bark by being thus hindred of it's vent for the sap more especially the more serous part thereof is not wholy spent till the great Frosts in Winter as may be seen by the long continuance of the leaves on the top-branches and their softnesse Now I say it is hereby restrained to the greater effusion of it into the graft instead of it's own toppe and branches the next spring Cherry-stocks that you have reserved for standards in Orchards must not be thus dealt with but the side-branches as I have said only pruned of the stocks because they must be grafted at such an height as the Trees are to spread for Cherry grafts for the most part immediately expand themselves into branches on the head of the stock neither will they