Branch being small at the time of its Graffing becomes afterwards much thicker than before methinks that it is hard forbearing to say that it is grown the stronger by it there being no likelyhood of maintaining on the contrary that the thicker it is the weaker it is From all I have been saying to explain the signification of those words Strong and Strength Weak and Weakness it follows that they may according to my sence be usefully employ'd and distinctly understood in the Treatise of the Pruning of Trees Now among these Trees there are some which yearly produce a great quantity of thick Branches and few small ones There are some that produce a reasonable number of both and in fine there are some which grow but little either from Foot or Head That is that produce but few new Roots under Ground and even those all small ones and but few new Branches above ground and those likewise almost all short and small which are consequently far from appearing as they say commonly Fine Strong and Vigorous Trees but on the contrary look if I may express my self so Sick and Languishing This Production of different Branches is only the Work of Nature which is perform'd innocently and without the least dependance on the Reasonings of Philosophy and tho' this Production has not been the work of the Meditation of Man yet it has furnish'd him a fair Subject to work upon so that we pretend to have drawn great Instructions from it towards the Cultivating and Management of our Fruit-Gardens Being then certain that all the Parts of which all manner of Trees are Compos'd do not receive an equal quantity of Sap since all the Branches are not of an equal thickness and length I mean some being considerably thicker and harder to break which consequently may be said to be stronger than others their Neighbours Being likewise certain that upon the same Trees there are certain Branches which are considerably smaller and more easie to break and therefore may be said to be weaker than other Neighbouring ones It is moreover certain as I have heretofore offer'd and 't is what I have observ'd which perhaps few had done before me I say it is certain that very seldom Fruit-Buds form themselves upon thick and strong Branches so that for Instance if a Pear-Tree produce none but such it will commonly bear no Pears whereas on the contrary the small and weak Branches produce generally a great deal of Fruit insomuch that if sometimes in one and the same Tree all one side appears as it were Pining in not having produc'd any new Branches or at least but very weak ones It is observable that that side grows ordinarily full of Fruit-buds while the other part of the Tree which by the abundance of Fine Branches appears very Healthy and Vigorous produces but very few and often none at all This Observation has put me upon performing two Operations which I have found very successful The first is that when a Fruit-Tree remains several years without producing hardly any thing besides these kind of Branches of an extraordinary thickness and length and consequently bears but little Fruit In that case I have found no better and readier way to make it Fruitful than by the extraordinary Pruning I have mention'd heretofore that is by applying my self at the beginning of the Spring to the Source or Spring of that Force and Vigour which are the Roots in order to diminish their Action and to that end I lay open half the Foot of that Tree and wholly take away one or two and sometimes more of the thickest and most active Roots I meet with and retrench them so well from the Place where they grow that there does not remain the least part capable of performing the least Function of a Root by that means I prevent the Luxuriance of the Sap for the future and consequently render the whole Head less Vigorous whence it follows that it Shoots less of these thick Branches and more small ones and thus it is dispos'd to bear Fruit. The second Operation is that when in the Month of May a Branch shoots out of an extraordinary thickness either in the ordinary Course of an old Planted Tree or in the first Years of Graffing and that consequently it will be evident that such a Branch will be at the same time very long and have no Disposition to bear Fruit this being grounded upon the Reason of its Strength or Thickness which proceeds from too great an abundance of Sap in such a case I am of Opinion that it is easie for those that are willing so to do to divide as I may call it that Torrent of Sap and whereas instead that its whole Tendency was only to the Production of a thick Branch which for the most part would he of no Use at all it is easie to reduce it and as it were oblige it to make several very good ones whereof one part will be weak for Fruit and others sufficiently thick for Wood. And that is fit to be done in the Month of May Therefore at that time I cause that young thick Shoot to be Pinch'd that is broken with the Nail and leave it no greater length than that of two three or four Eyes at most Hereafter I will explain the manner and success of such an Operation after having explain'd what relates to Pruning But before I enter into the particulars of Pruning I suppose that we are to Prune either young Trees which have never yet felt the Pruning Knife and for Example have not been Planted above a Year or two or Old Trees which have already been Prun'd several Years before I suppose besides that these old Trees are in a good condition as having been govern'd by Persons of Understanding so that they only want being preserv'd or else that they are in an ill case either for having always been neglected that is not Prun'd or else for having been ill Prun'd so that it may be necessary to endeavour the correcting of their defects I do not really believe that I may so foresee all the Cases of Pruning as without forgetting one be able to give Rules for every one that may happen I am far from being so presumptuous knowing that it is almost in this case as it is in Physick and in the matter of Law-Suits Hypocrates and Gallen with so many Aphorisms for the one Le Code and Le Digeste with so many Regulations and Ord'nances for the other have not been capable of foreseeing and providing against all nor consequently to decide all since there daily occur new Cases All I pretend is to give you exact Information of the Method I have practis'd for these Thirty Years with an extraordinary application in which I have been very successful as well as those who understand it and who in imitation of me do me the Honour to Practise my Maxims To explain the particulars of this Method I will divide what I have to say into three
to different Distempers Gardners would certainly be blame-worthy if they did not make it their Study to find out effectual Remedies for some and to satisfie themselves as to the others and if knowing those Remedies they were not careful to apply them upon occasion For it were vain for them to breed Trees in their Gardens to be liable to see them perish in their prime for want of knowing how to Cure them and restore them to their pristine Vigour In Order not to omit any thing relating to those Accidents which our Trees are liable to without including such as proceed from too long wounds of great Heat of great Cold of Storms of Whirlwinds Hails c. I think my self oblig'd to say in the first place that there are Distempers common to all Trees in general Secondly that there are some that are peculiar to every particular kind The common Distempers consist either in a defect of Vigour which makes the Trees appear in a languishing Condition or else in a storm of large white Worms which are sometimes form'd in the Earth and there gnaw the Roots or the Bark of the Neighbouring Stem those mischievous little Insects which we call Tons by degrees cause so great a disorder that the Tree which is attack'd by them and had always appear'd Vigorous before all on a suddain dies without any Remedy The Peculiar Distempers are for Example in Pear-Treees against a Wall when their Leaves are attack'd with what we call Tigers Cankers and Scabs in other Pear-Trees Viz. Robins small Muscadins c. Gum on Stone Fruit-Trees especially Peach-Trees which commonly destroys that part on which it fixes either Branch or Stem and when unfortunately it attacks the part where the Tree is graffed which is often hid under ground it insensibly spreads round about that Graff without any bodies observing of it for the Tree still continues in a good Condition while there remains any passage for the Sap but finally this Gum hindering this Sap from rising to the upper parts of the Tree makes that Tree die suddenly as if it had been suffocated by a kind of Apoplectick Fit Moreover some Peach-Trees are also attack'd with Aemets and a small kind of green Fleas which sometimes fasten on the young Shoots and hinder them from thriving sometimes on the new Leaves and cause them first to shrink next to dry and fall We have likewise North-East Winds which blast in some Springs wither and as it were burn all the new Shoots insomuch that the Trees on which this unlucky Influence lights appears dead while others about them are green full of fine Leaves and continue to produce fine Shoots Besides this are not the most Vigorous Trees subject to have the end of their new Shoots intirely cut off by a little black round Insect call'd Bud-Cutter Fig Trees dread the great Colds of the Winter which are capable of Freezing their whole head unless they be extreamly well Cover'd but it is not sufficient to have secur'd them against Frost They are likewise subject in that Winter Season to have the lower part of their Stems gnaw'd by Rats and Mulots which makes them pine and die Those very Animals together with Laires Ear-wigs and Snails likewise spoil the very Fruit on the Trees when they approach to maturity especially Peaches and Plums have not Goosberry-shrubs their peculiar Enemies also which are a kind of small green Caterpillars which form themselves towards the Months of May and June on the back part of their Leaves and eat them to that degree that those little Shrubs remain altogether bare and their Fruit no longer having any thing to cover and defend them from the great heats of the Sun is destroy'd without being able to Ripen I might run over all the Accidents which all the rest of Gard'ning is liable to and cause abundance of Disorders in it For Example Strawberry-Plants in the prime of their Youth and Vigour are as it were treacherously attack'd in their very Roots by those wicked Tons which destroy them Kitchen-Plants especially Lettuce and Succory c. constantly have some of those Tons or other little reddish Worms which gnaw them about the neck and kill them just as they come to perfection How much do Artichokes suffer by little black Flies which infest them towards the end of Summer and Mulots or Garden-Mice which gnaw their Roots in the Winter Lettuce and Succory are absolutely devour'd by Snails some of which are long and yellow some blackish and gray and others little and white especially in Rainy Weather Sorell is tormented in very hot weather with little Black Fleas which gnaw all the Leaves insomuch that it becomes of no use Even Cabbages are spoil'd by green Snails which gnaw and spoil all their Leaves but I am only to speak in this place of those Distempers that may be Cur'd in Fruit-Trees and not of such as are Incurable nor of those that are incident to Kitchen-Plants those commonly proceed either from the defect of the Ground which does not furnish nourishment enough or from an ill Culture or a defect in Pruning or finally from a defect in the Tree which was not well-condition'd either before it was Planted or in Planting of it It therefore follows in the first place that the Soil may contribute to Distemper our Trees which commonly happens when the Earth is not Fruitful in it self or is perhaps become so by being exhausted or when it is too dry or too moist or else when tho' never so good there is not a sufficient quantity of it In order to remedy all those kind of Inconvenients I say that when the Soil is infertile as it happens in many places where there is nothing but clear Sand the Master is to blame to have Planted any thing in it the defect of it can never be Corrected whatever quantity of Dung he puts into it the only Expedient is to remove that Earth and put better Mould in the room of it Happy are those who can meet with it in their Neighbourhood and thereby avoid the Trouble and Charge of fetching it at a distance As to that which is worn out it is likely that there may be some better about it which may be us'd unless People would allow it two or three years time to lie Fallow in order to amend it by rest but there is no pleasure in losing so much time When we resolve to make this Exchange of Mould and yet are unwilling to remove the Tree which is not Old one half of the Roots must be Prun'd short again which will suffice for the first Year doing the same again at the end of two years to the other half of the Tree Nothing Exhausts the Ground more than the Roots of Trees lying long in the same place especially the Roots of Neighbouring Trees particularly Pallisado's of Elms Fruit-Trees must of necessity Pine or Perish if that Neighbourhood subsists When the Ground is too dry and
since furnish'd him with so many Varieties This Artificial and Curious Edging may very well deserve some Place in our Philosophical Meditations If we consider the Circumstances attending the Bulbs of Tulips we cannot but acknowledge that Philosophy has not yet been able to give us a satisfactory Account of them They are put into the Ground in October and there take Root and in March following each of them puts out a Stalk in order to Budding and Blossoming in due time Hitherto you will say there is nothing extraordinary since the same thing is always seen in the Imperial Crown the Hyacinth Tuberose Jonquil c. but here then lyes the Wonder that this Tulip-Stalh which grew manifestly out of the very Middle or Center of the Bulb just as the Stalk usually grows out of the Middle in all other Bulbs is at length remov'd from its first Seat viz. the Center to the Outside or Superficies of its Bulb a peculiar Case which happens not to any other Plant. Now who is it that can solve the Difficulty how this Transposition is brought to pass Does the Bulb force it back again Or does it by a sort of Leger de main in its Ascent penetrate the sides of the Bulb This indeed is a Mystery in Vigetation that can never be look'd upon with sufficient Astonishment and Admiration It would be an endless Labour should I particularize all my Observations of this kind in Vegetables But these are sufficient to demonstrate that every Plant has a peculiar determinate certain and infallible Stint or Term for the Beginning and Duration of its Action for the Manner of its Appearance above Ground for the Quality of its Soil for the Taste Colour and size of its Fruit for the Figure Bigness and Colour of the Seed the Difference of its Leaves and Stalk or for the Parts of the Tree where the Fruit and the Seed grows And though as I have said divers times it be very difficult to explain all these peculiar Differences by the Doctrine of Pores the different Configuration of Parts or Atoms of a Figure justly proportioned for the Penetration of them I shall here notwithstanding conclude this Subject at present after I have given the Reader my Thoughts concerning that Circulation of the Sap which some pretend to have discovered in Plants CHAP. XVIII Reflections upon their Opinion that maintains the Circulation of the Sap. AS I am of Opinion First That there is in the Spring a certain Rarefaction in all Vegetables which is the first Mover in Vegetation And Secondly That there is in every Plant a Vital Principle which being a necessary Agent receives the first Effects of that Rarefaction as I have already discoursed elsewhere So I cannot think of any Comparison fitter to make my Notion intelligible than that of a Clock which needs no more to set it going than only to pull up the Weight and give a little Jog to the Pendulum The Truth is I always thought it absolutely impossible to make this pretended Circulation consistent with the Action of the Roots which we daily see to extend themselves both in Length and Thickness at the very same Instant that they receive their Nourishment And the Objections that prevail'd with me were these First I cannot apprehend either at what time or in what Place this Circulation should begin Secondly I cannot see either any Necessity or Advantage of it Thirdly Supposing we should admit it I am in the dark whether we must assert one general Circulation only in every Tree or whether there must be as many Circulations as there are particular Branches c. As for the Time when it begins if there be such a Circulation it must certainly have its Beginning the very same Instant that the Roots begin their Action and also must owe that very Beginning to the Influence and Virtue of the Roots so that consequently there may be a Time when there will be no Circulation for as much as the Roots are not continually in Action Now as the principal Reason of admitting this Hypothesis of Circulation in Animals is drawn from the Necessity of it viz. for the Purifying the Blood which we are told would be in great Danger of being corrupted if not kept in continual Motion So if that Instance hold in Plants it must then also follow that the Sap would be in the like Danger of Corruption that very first Moment of its Circulations being intermitted and consequently we should see a general Mortality of all those Trees that should happen not to be in Action whatever the Cause of it might be whether their being hindred by the Frost or their lying out of the Ground and much more that all Branches when once separated from the Tree that bare them must immediately perish just as the Members as soon as they are cut off from the Body But now there is nothing more contrary to the Experience of every one than this will as appears evidently by that infinite Number of Plants and Grafts which are so frequently and with such good Success sent into foreign Countries without the least ill Accident provided they be not overmuch dry'd by excess of Heat But supposing there be really such a Circulation and that it commences at the same time with the Action of the Roots Yet how will they be able to solve the Production of those Branches which shoot forth in the Spring without any Dependance upon the Roots That it is so there can be no doubt since we have Instances of it every Spring in Trees newly planted and which have not yet put forth any new Roots As also in Trees digg'd up in the Winter and left lying on the Ground and even Branches lopp'd off in that Season and set up an end in the Ground will put out little Shoots in the Spring In fine How is it possible to give a clear Account of this Circulation when we find that Almonds Nuts and even common Seeds shoot out within the Earth and in a few days put forth a Root growing in length downward but do not cause any Production to rise up out of the Ground When we see that the Bulb of the Imperial will send out Roots in August but no Stalk and on the contrary other Bulbs put out Stalks in the Autumn and Spring but no Roots when Tulips Tuberose's and especially the Asparagus grow upright in such a manner as that which was the extream Part at its first Appearance still continues so and that all of it rises entirely and at once from the Bottom to the Top when the Sprouts shooting out from the Extremity of a Branch which has been cut or cropt have such an extream difference in Length and Thickness as I have formerly described It is I think sufficiently clear from hence that there is a very unequal Distribution made of the Sap seeing that the Fruit-buds are form'd only upon the Top of the weak Branches and grow only at the Bottom of the Strong I
Branches as grow and spread on the same side of a Wall-Tree A Mother Branch is a Branch that after its last Pruning has shot forth other new Branches And thus we say that in Pruning no young Branches are to be left upon the Mother Branches but such as contribute to the Beauty of the figure of the Tree Main or whole Branches are called Arms and Limbs Branches Chifonnes Skrubbed or Shrubbie Branches are such as are very small and very short or Skrubbed whether they be of but of one or more years growth and because they do but stuff a Tree with a confused quantity of unless Leaves must therefore be taken clean away Water Branches or Water shoots or Water Boughs are such Boughs that on Standards being shaded and dript upon remain smooth and naked without Buds which are as I suppose those which our Authour calls Jarrets or Hams See Hams A Wood Branch is a Branch that springing out of the last years Pruning in a regular and natural order is reasonably thick A half Wood Branch or Branch of half Wood is a Branch that being too small for a Wood Branch and two thick for a Fruit Branch must be shortned to the length of two or three Inches to make it produce other new ones that may be better either for Wood or Fruit and at the same time contribute to the Beauty of the figure and to spend off and divert some of the over Luxuriant vigour of the Tree Branchss of False Wood are such as shoot from any other part of the Tree than that which was Pruned last year or else suâ—h as though they spring from the last Pruning are thick and gouty in those places where they should be slender The main Running Branches of Melons or Cucumbers are called Vines To break off See pinch and Brout and Brouse To break up Is said properly of plowing or digging up Ground that never was tilled before or at least not a long time To Brouse or Brout in French Brouter is to break off the extreamities of small Branches when they are too long in proportion to their vigour Brugnons See Nectarins Bruised Fruit that is bruised in falling without piercing the skin is called in French Cottii or Squatted A Bud is the Head of a Young shoot that begins to peep out A Young Bud or Eye is a Bud as 't were in its first Seed and principles when it just only appears in the Bark of the Tree before it swells to peep or shoot forth To Bud is to Graff by Inoculation or set a young Bud of one Tree into another an operation to be performed about Mid-summer See Innoculate and Inoculation and Graffing in the fifth part of this Work Well Buddod or well set Trees is said of those Fruit-Trees that have abundance of Fruit Buds and the contrary of those that are not so A Bucket or Tub used by Gard'ners sometimes to sow some choice particular Seeds in they are made sometimes square or oblong but most commonly round and about the bigness of a Barrel The French call them Baquets See Tubs Bulls or Bulbous Roots are all such Roots as are Roundish and Coat upon Coat like Onions as those of Garlick Tulips c. and are mostly propagated by Off-sets And accordingly in French they are called by the general name of Onions Mother Bubs are those which produce Off-sets A Bunch is a common Term as a Bunch of Radishes Turneps c. Bunch is also said of Grapes or any Fruit that produces several Fruit upon one stalk as also of knots of Wood c. Burly-Trees are said to be or grow Burly when a Graff grows bigger than the stock it is Graffed upon which is asign the stock or wilding is not vigorous enough The French term is Burlet Bubo is said of some Fruit Shrubs as a Curran-Bush a Goose-berry-Bush c. Also the tops of Dwarf-Trees are said to be Bushie when the Branches grow into a Tuft Bushel A French-Bushel is a measure containing near a peck and half English or 20 pound weight To Butt See Hillock A Button is a round and turgid swelling Bud containing the Blossoms that produce the Fruit in any Tree in Kernal Fruit every Bud contains several Blossoms and in stone Fruit but one C. CAbbage a known Plant. To Cabbage or Pome is to curl or fold up into a round firm head like a Cabbage or an Apple Thus not only Cabbage but Lettuce is said to Cabbage or Pome and Artichokes are said to Pome See Pome Calebas is a term used for Plums that in the Month of May instead of Plumping or preserving their Green grow broad lank and Whitish and at last fall off without Plumping at all A Canker is a sort of Scurf Scabbiness or dry Rot in Trees which breeds both in the Bark and in the Wood and most infests the little Muscat and Robine and Bergamot Pear-Trees as well in their Stems or Bodies as in their Branches Capers and Capucin Capers see them described in the sixth part treating peculiarly of Kitchen-Gardens Caprons are Straw-berry Plants that have large Velvet Leaves and bear large Whitish Straw-berries which have but a faint taste and are not very Fruitful and therefore not much valued A Carpet Walk is a Green Walk of Grass Camomil or the like kept neat and even with mowing and rolling See Walk Cases or Boxes are conveniences made of Wood to plant some certain rare and tender Plants as Orange-Trees in c. See Boxes To Castrate or Geld is said of Cutting or Pinching of the superfluous shoots of Melons Cucumbers c. Castings of Ponds or Ditches Is the slime or mud cast out of Ponds or Ditches which after it has been a while exposed to the Sun is profitably used to recruit improve or amend exhausted or lean Ground To Chap is said of the Ground or of any Wood or Fruit that cleaves and gapes by any cause whatsoever Chalk and Chalkie Earth See Earth Chassis See Class Frames Cherry-Gardens or Cherry-Orchards or Cherry-Plantations are known terms There are in France some Cherry-plantations in the open fields confining upon the Vine-Yards of some miles extent and the like there are of Plums Olives c. Stock Cherry-Trees are Cherry-Trees sprung from the Roots of others which yet bears good Cherries without being Graffed Chevreuses are Hairy or Goat Peaches so called because they are Hairy like Goats Chevre signifying a Goat Chevreuses are Peachos Hairy like Goats See Goat Peaches Chovons Colly-flower plant in Flowers Cions or Scions are young slips or suckers of any Tree fit to Graff See Scions Circumposion See Baskets A Glass is a rank or order by which things are sorted and in which they are placed Claws or Fangs called in French Patts See Fangs Clay or Clayie Ground are terms well known see Earth Cleanse as to Cleanse a Tree of Moss Scab or Canker Gum Rust Vermin and their Eggs c. Clear as to Clear a Tree of some of its superfluous
heat enough to put forth its productions and brings forth every thing later than other places It is called forward or hasty when Fruits ripen in it betimes as at St. Germains Paris St. Maur c. and backward when it has a contrary effect It is called loose light and mellow when either by art or nature it is brought to a midling consistence that is loose and light like sand and yet partaking of the heart and substance of good mould easily obeying the spade rake and other instruments and penetrable to Seeds and the shoots and Fibrous Roots of Plants and Trees It is called new or fresh when it never served yet to the production of any Plant such as is found two or three foot or more in depth beyond the surface or upper crust of the Ground It is called made or transported Earth when 't is brought into the Garden from some other place It is called Fallow Ground when 't is laid to rest a year or two or more without being planted or sown with any thing See hollow It is called over wrought or exhausted Ground when it has been a long time continually tilled sown and Planted without intermission and without any recruit or amendment Lastly it is called light and sandy when without having any body of true Earth its parts do not stick together no not with the Rain it self but are so loose that no plants can take hold enough to fix any Root there Mould is transported Earth and is either Natural or Artificial Natural Mould is pure choice well tempered Earth taken from the bottom or under pasture of a Meadow or other place where the Earth is naturally rank and mellow or made out of the castings of Ditches or Ponds well dryed sunned and dressed c. Artificial Mould is Earth composed of rotten Dung natural Mold rotted Leaves of Trees and other proper fanting and enriching Materials See Compost To Earth up is to bank or hillock up the Earth about Cellery Endive Long Lettuce Chards c. almost to their Tops to whiten them Edgings are the edges of Borders or Beds which are garnished with Sweet Flowers or Herbs Espaliers are Wall-trees or any Trellissed or pallisado'd Tree Estiloers Ever Greens are such Plants whose Leaves are always Green as Bays Lawrel Holly c. Exhautted See Earth Exoticks are Foreign Plants brought from beyond the Seas and that do not naturally grow in our Climates Exposition Exposure and Aspect signifie the same thing and denotes the posture or situation any Wall or plant is in in order to receive the Benefit of the Rays and influence of the Sun And is fourfold viz. Northern Southern Eastern Western The Good Expositions are those of the East and South whereof the South is the best The Bad Exposition is that of the North. The Midling or Indifferent Exposition is that of the West See them all described in the Body of the Work Eye a young Bud just appearing in the Bark of a Tree Is called an Eye See Bud. The Crown or higher extremity of any Kirnel Fruit is likewise termed an Eye F. FAggots is the brushy or small part in the middle of a Faggot laid at the bottom of Cases for Orange-Trees to keep the Earth lose and let the moisture pass Fall the falling or sloping of any piece of Ground downward is called Declivity Which See Fallow Earth or Ground is Ground laid to rest and only tilled mucked and amended without sowing or planting any thing in for a certain time till it be recruited See Earth False Flowers or Blossoms are those Flowers or Blossoms of Cucumbers Melons c. that do not knit or set for Fruit but fall off without producing any thing False Wood. See Branches Fangs is a term signifying the Claws of Ranunculus and such like Roots with which they take hold in the Ground See Claws To Fan or Skreen Corn or Seeds is a well known Term. Fane is a French Term the top or leafy part properly of such Plants whose Leafs are only or mostly in use as of Radishes Turneps c. being that part of them as the word imports that is subject to fade and wither It is called in English sometimes Foliage See Foliage Tops Leaves A Fathom is a measure of six Foot called in French a Toise and is a Term much used by this Author See Toise Feed as to feed Vines with Blood and other nourishing and refreshing mixtures Fibres are small long Roots like Hairs that spring out of the larger Roots of Trees To Fill or Knit is said of Fruit when it begins to Plump See Knit and Plump Fine as Roses or Arroses fine are gentle waterings Fleas are a sort of black Vermine that hang upon and spoil Plants called Pucerons in French from their likeness to other Fleas Flavour is a grateful tast mixed with a fragrant smell as in some Wine and Fruit when we say they have a fine Flavour To Fill or Knit is said of Fruit when it begins to Plump See Knit and Plump A Florist is a Gard'ner that cultivates Flowers or any other Person that understands and delights in the same Feliage is the leafy part of a Tree or other Plant or a great quantity of Leaves Ferest-Trees are such Trees as bear no Fruit but are planted only for Yards Avenues c. Fork and to Fork the Earth c. are Terms that need no Explanation Forward Fruits Plants or Legumes are such as ripen or grow fit to be eaten betimes in the Year See Hastings To Force is to advance things to Maturity upon Hot-beds before their natural Season Fotherd Grounds is ground upon which Cattel are fed upon in Winter with Hay c. to better it A Free-stock as Free-stock upon Free-stock is a Graff upon a Wilding or a Graff of a Wilding upon a Wilding See Stock Frost-bitten is said of Blossoms Buds Shoots Fruits or any Edible plants that are killed or otherwise spoild with the Frost A Fruit-loft Garner Room Store-house or Magazine is a place where Fruit is laid up Kernel-Fruit is Fruit that comes of Kernels or Seeds as Apples Pears Quinces Stone Fruit is Fruit that comes of and contains Stones or hard Shells inclosing their Seed growing within the pulp of the Fruit as Peaches Plums c. Furnitures are all hot and spicy Herbs mixed with Lettuce Purslain and other cold Herbs in Sallets to temper and relish them as Rocket Tarragon Basil c. To fold in is said of Leaves of decayed or blasted Plants that shrink wither and curl up together on a heap The Foot of a Tree is that swelling part of a Tree between the Body or Trunk and the Roots of the Trees that are covered in the Earth It is sometimes called in French the Neck of a Tree G. AGage is a Hole or Trench dug to plant a Tree in of a certain depth which serves a measure for all the rest in the same row Gardens are choice inclosed pieces of Ground planted with
is a sort of Chalkie and faultty substance used to warm and amend land that are cold and moist Matts and Mattrasses are used to cover Plants with from the Cold. Melons and Muskmelons are known Fruits Their main Branches are called Vines to break of the tops of which Vines is called checking or stoping them and by the French to arrest Melons c. Micote a gently rising and falling Ground hardly to be discerned from a level Mellow Earth See Earth Mildew is a sort of Honey dew that falling upon Plants blasts rots and spoils them Milk Diet is Milk diluted or mix'd with water and discreetly let down to the Roots of Orange-Trees or other like tender Exoticks and for curious Plants to refresh and recover them when sick by letting it gently drop out of the Vessel by a rag laid partly in the Milk and part of it out Mother Insects See Insects Mother Branches See Branches Move as to Move stir turn up and new dress or turn up the Earth in any Place Musk. Mural-Trees are Wall-Trees Musked those Fruits are said to be Musked that have a rich spicy or winy taste and leave a smack of perfume in the Mouth and smell well Mushrooms are certain fungous or spungy excrescentes of the Earth which are now highly prized in Sauces Musty or Mouldy Dung that is so Mouldy that it begins to grow all Hairy with Hoariness is then fit to use to make Hot Beds for Mushrooms See Beds Dung Musty and Hoary N. TO Nail up a Wall-Tree is to fasten well its Branches and palisade and Trellise it as it should be to keep it tight and in due shape and figure The neck of a Tree See foot Nectarins called also Brugnons are smooth skin'd Peaches that cleave to their stones To nip See to pinch Novelties of the Spring are such things as are forced to a maturity upon Hot Beds a considerable while before their natural time of ripening Nursery Gardens or Seminaries are Gardens planted only with seedling or other stocks to Graff on or young Trees ready Graffed in order to have thom ready to transplant in other Gardens as occasion shall require Nursery Beds or Seminary Beds are Beds where young plants or Herbs are sown or planted in order to be transplanted afterwards elsewhere O. OFf-Sets are young kernell Excrescences breeding from the sides of the lower part of Boulbous Roots which are round without and concave within which in time grow to be Bulbs themselves and serve for their propagation In Garlick they are called Cloves Onions is a common term in French for all Boulbous Roots Odoriferous is said of all sweet scented plants Flowers or Fruits In Fruits this quality is termed by the French Musked or Perfumed Orangist is a Gardner that cultivates Oranges or any person that understands and delights in the Culture of them Orangery is a place stocked with Orange Trees whether within doors or without Orchards or Hort-yards Ort-yards are inclosed pieces of Ground planted chiefly with Standards Fruit-Trees and more often fenced with Hedges or Ditches and other fences than with Walls P. PAnach't is said of a Tulip Carnation or such like Flower when they are curiously striped and diversified with several Colours like a gaudy Plume of Feathers which the word properly signifies To Palisade is to bend spread and couch Trees upon Trails or Trellisses or against Walls whence Trees are named Palisaded Trees Paradise Apples are a sort of sweet Apple growing on small Trees very sit for some purposes of Graffing To Graff upon Paradise is to Graff upon the stocks of such Trees Parallel Allies are Allies of an-equal breadth through their whole length and running along in lines equally distant all along from the lines that compose the sides of the Allies which answer them Parterres are Flower Gardens or Flower plots in such Gardens Under Pasture is Earth or mold taken up from under the Turf of good Meadow or Pasture Ground to carry into Gardens to mend or recruit the Soil Pavies are Peaches that stick fast to their Stones Peaches In a strict Sence in this Author are such only as loosen from their Stones Stone Peaches are Peaches growing on a Tree sprung from a Stone without graffing To Peg down is to fix down the Layers of any Plants to make them firm that they may take Root the better Perfumed or Musked is that which has a spicy tast mixed with a smack both of the tast and smell of Musk or some such like perfume To Perch is to inclose Trees or Plants with fences made with poles or perches laid cross one another to keep off Beasts and Boys Perennial See Ever-green Pickets See Spikes To Pinch See in the Treatise of Pruning The Pith is the sappy part of the Wood of a Tree Plain or pure is said of a Flower that is but of one colour without being pannach't or striped See Pure To Plant or Set is a Term used in Contradistinction to sowing A Plant Merchant or Herborist is a Term sufficiently known A Plantation is a piece of Ground stocked with plants of any sort or of many kinds A Plot as a Garden Plot is a piece of Ground modelled out ready for planting according to the design of the Plantation To Plump or fill is said of Fruits when they begin to grow bulky and towards ripening To Pome or Apple is said of the Heads of Artichokes when they grow round and full shaped as an Apple It is said also of Lettuce c. Pomace is the mash which remains of pressed Apples after the Sider is made used for producing of Seedling Stocks in Nursery-Gardens To Pot is to put or sow any Seed or Plant that is tender or curious into a Pot for its better and safer Cultivation Potagery is a Term signifying all sorts of Herbs or Kitchen-plants and all that concerns them considered in general Pot-Herbs are always used in the Pot or Kitchen Powdret is the dryed Powder of Occidental Civet otherwise called human Dung used by some to the Roots of Orange-Trees but condemned by the Author To Prick is to pull up young Seedlings where they grow too close and thick in the Nursery Beds and prick them into other Beds at more distance To Prop is to prop up any Plants with Perches forked Sticks or Poles such as Hops Vines Peas French-Beans c. To Prime and its several ways See in the Treatise of Pruning Pulp is the inward Substance or fleshy part of any Fruit of which there are several sorts as Buttred and melting Pulp is that which is melting and sweet in the Mouth like Butter such as is that of the Butter-pear Bergamots c. Short Pulp is that which breaks short in eating such as is that of Pears that are firm without being hard and that crackle between the Teeth in eating It is called tough harsh and hard in certain Pear that have nothing of fine or delicate as in Catillac's Double-flowers c. It is called Mealy when it
eats dry and mealy as in over ripe Dean-pears Cadet-pears c. It is called Doughy when it is fattish and disagreeably soft like Dough as in white Butter-pears Lansacs that grow in theshade It is called Tender in certain Pears that though they be neither melting nor short yet are tender and excellent without being soft fatty or otherwise distastful as in unknown Chaineaus Vine Pears Lastly some Pears have sower taste as the St. Germain Pears and some sharp and biting as the Crasauns A Punaise or Bug is a sort of a Tyke that preys upon Plants as the stinking Bugs of the same Name do Human Bodies Pure See Plain Q. QUince Stocks that are smooth strait vigorous and fit to graff upon the Author calls Coignassiers and those that are rough knotty and skrubbed and unfit he calls Coigniers But he believes them not Male and Female according to the vulgar Fancy Of these the Portugal are best R. RAke a Gard'ners Rake whether of Wood or Iron is well enough known and the action of using it Rame and Ramberge are terms used of Melons when instead of a pleasant they have a stinking and filthy taste contracted from the neighbourhood of some stinking Weeds or being too near the Dung the same happens to hasty Asparagus from the Hot Bed To Range is to place in good order or plant even in a Line Rank Earth See Earth Random Plants are such as having been smothered and deprived too much of Light and Air or oppressed with any weight grow white small Curl'd and crooked and slim like such we find under great Stones or Logs when we take them up See Estioler To Recreate is to turn up Ground and recruit it with some heartning and fatning Mold or Mixtures and convenient waterings c. Red Winds are the dry and blasting North East Winds that Reign in March and April To Refresh is said in two Senses viz First Trees are refreshed by Ablaqueation i. e. by laying their Roots bare and retrenching their decayed and superfluous Roots and recruiting them with good fresh Earth or well tempered Mould or by turning up side down and well dressing and stirring the old Earth Secondly To Refresh is likewise to water Trees or Plants as also to feed them and diet them with Water diluted with Milk or well tinged with Dung or other rich ingredients or with Bloud or other fatning and nourishing things when they are Sick To Release See Unbind Retrench Rye-Straw being long firm and steept in Water to make it pliable is used to make Bands to tie up Lettuce or Cellery c. to whiten or wads to wrap about them or covers to cover them or other Plants and some tender Trees in Winter See Stram A Ridge is a double Slope between two Furrows in any digged or plowed Land See Slope Roses or Arroses fine are gentle waterings Rossane is a Name for all Yellow Peaches Roots such Plants whose Roots are most in use are called often simply by that Name as Carrots Turneps c. Rub as to rub of superfluous Buds See it in the Treatise of Pruning Rust is the effect of Blasting or Mildew S. THE Salt of the Earth so called in Gard'ning Terms is a certain Spirit which renders its Fertile supposed to be communicated by the rays of the Sun tempered with the nitrous parts off the Air and Dew Sand and Sandy Earth See Earth Sap is the radical moisture or Juice that nourishes a Plant. Saped see Sobbed is any thing that is too much soaked in Water Scar is a gash which remains after the cutting or pruning of a Tree To Scrape as to scarpe off Moss Spawn or Eggs of Vermines c. needs no Explication Scions See Cions A Scoop to scoop out Water and the use of it are things well known Screens or Skreens are inventions made of Straw or other Matter to shelter Plants Scutcheon or Escutcheon a Term of Graffing See it explained in the Treatise of Graffing part Season a thing is said to be in Season while it continues fit to eat Seedlings are little young Plants sprung from Seeds or Kirnels in order to form Stocks fit to graff on Thus we say an Apple Seedling a Seedling Orange-Tree Seed-Leaves See Leaves Seminaries are Nursery Beds or Gardens See Nursery To Set is to plant with the Hand as distinguisht from sowing Well Set or Budded See Budded To Settle is the sinking of the Earth in order to grow firm after digging or plowing or otherwise tilling or of a Hot Bed after its great and first heat is past To Sever is to sever that end of any young Graff that is graffed by Inarching or a pqroach from the Stock on which it grew when the other end of it has taken good hold and footing in the Stock into which it was graffed 'T is said also of rooted Layers when slipt off from their old Stock To Shed Fruit Trees are said to shed their Flowers or Blossoms when blasted or nipt by Winds or Frosts they fall off without producing Fruit. To Shoot is the same as to spring or sprout out Shoots are such young Branches as shoot out every year To Shrivel or Fold is said of Leaves Blasted or dying Trees or Plants Shrubs are small kind of Trees of a midling sort between Trees and Herbs Slips are Suckers slipt off from any Trees or Plants to set again to propagate them To Smooth is to pare or cut even a large Bough with a pruning Knife after it is sawed off Smut is the Blacking or Smutting of Corn or other Plants that happens to them in some Years Snivel called Morve is a sort of rotting moisture hanging about some Plants Spicy is said of all hot scented and tasted Plants Spikes are separated Sticks fixed on the sides of Beds or in Rows where Trees are to be planted to guide the Eye to keep them in a direct Line Spindles are those stalks in stocks or Tusts of Carnations or Clove-gilliflowers that bear the Flowers Spit is the depth a Spade pierces into the Ground as one Spit deep two Spit deep c. Sprigs are small young Shoots Sprouts are young green Shoots A Stalk is said of that part that bears any Fruit immediately and tacks it to the Branch on which it grows It is also the stem of any Plant or Herb that is not a Tree or Shrub Standards are tall Bodied Trees growing in open Ground Stake Squatted See Cotty Stem is the Body of a Tree between the Foot and the Head Stick is said properly of a strait Stem that runs up high and upright all the way without any Branches till just at the top Sticky or Stringy is said of Roots when not kindly or running to Seed Stiff is said of some Earth See Earth To stir or stir up is gently to move the Earth without diging or plowing it though sometimes it be used for any sort of Tillage A stock is the stem or Body of a Tree upon which after due trimming and
preparation the Graff or Cion of another Tree is Graffed To top is by pinching breaking cutting or treading the Branches or main stalks of Trees or other plants the sap is checked ot stopped from mounting upwards or at least strait forwards Stool the crooked bottom part of an Artichoke slip by which it is fastned to the main Root is called its stool To strike Root Any new planted Tree layer slip or cutting is said to strike Root when it begins first to take Root or at least take new Root after its planting To strip is to despoil a Tree of its Leaves Fruit bark or Branches that form not the Head Striped is said of Flowers diversified with streakes of several Colours as Tulips Carnations c. To string as to string Straw-berry plants is to clear them of their superfluous strings and runners Strings See sticky A stone is the Seed of any Fruit which is enclosed in a woody shell hard like a stone which from thence is called stone Fruit as Plums Peaches c. A stone Peach is a Peach growing upon a Tree sprung from a stone without Graffing Stub Stump is the Trunk or stock of a Tree cut down very low or a Branch cut very close To cut or Prune stump wise See it in the Treatise of Graffing Pruning Surface and supersicies is the outward or upper crust of the Earth Surface Earth is that Earth or mold that is uppermost and exposed to the Air. Suckers are young Cions or slips commonly growing from the sides of the Roots ot else of the main joints of any plant or Tree sit to be slipt off and planted or Graffed Sweet Herbs are such as the French call sine Herbs as Rosemary Marjerome c. T. A Tendrel is a young tender shoot of a Vine or other Fruit-Tree that is not yet hardned or grown Woody A Terrass is an artificial bank or mount of Earth commonly supported with a fronting or facing of stone and raised like a kind of Bulwark for the ornament of a Garden To thin is to pick off Fruit pull up Herbs and Roots or cut away Branches when they grow too thick that the rest may thrive the better To Ticket is to fasten Tickets or notes about Fruit-Trees containg their names and order to distinguish them To Till is to dig delve plow and otherwise dress or prepare the Ground for planting or sowing Toise or Fathom is a measure of six foot see Fathom A Cubical Toise is the 216 foot every way of any thing measur'd by the Toise or Fathom Ton is a sort of Worm or Maggot that gnaws Straw-berry Roots A Trail is a Trelliss or Lattice frame made for the support of Wall and palisaded Trees To Transplant is to take up any thing out of the Bed or place where it was sown when it is grown to a fit bigness and to plant or set in another place where 't is to remain or to be improved to a greater perfection To Tread is used in more sences than one as to tread down Earth about Trees c. To make it settle firmly c. or to tread as the the tops of Carrots Parsnips c. are troden down to keep the sap from mounting that it may nourish the Roots the better c. To Trench is to dig the Ground up and to make Trenches furrows and holes to plant Trees Artichokes c. in Trenches are Furrows with Holes fitted for Trees c. To Trelliss is to pallisade nail up and fasten Trees upon Walls or Pole-Hedges and on wooden Trails or Trelisses A Truss of Hay is a Term well known To Truss up is to raise up a Branch of a Wall-Tree that hangs down and tack it up fast that the Fruit may not break it or disfigure the Tree by Swagging it down with its weight To Turn up or loosen the Earth See stir and Till A Turf is either a Turf of Grass with its Earth or so much Earth that hangs firm about the Root of a Tree or Plant or Tuft of any Plant that grows in Tufts when they are pulled up Tuft is a knot of Roots or Boughs as 't were united together in one round Body or Cluster so we say a Tufted or Bushy Tree a Tuft of Strawberries c. Tyger-Babbs are a sort of pestilent insects infesting Wall-Pears and Pear-Trees V. VEin as a Vein of Earth is said Comparatively of some parts of a Garden that produce better or worse than other parts of it whence we say here is a good and there is a Bad Vein of Earth Vegetables are all sorts of living Plants Trees or Herbs that grow Vegetation is the springing or growing of any Plants Verdures is a Term denoting all Plants whose green Leaves chiefly are in use Vermine are all mischtevous Creatures that hurt plants Vigorous To Vindemiate is to gather Grapes and make them into Wine Vine-yard is a piece of Tilled Ground planted with Vines in order to make Wine Vine Dressers are those Husbandmen that order and dress the Vines Vines of Melons are their main running Branches so called because they run along like Vine Branches Vinous is said of a Winy tast and smell or flavour in Fruit. To Unbind is to take off the Bands of a Graff when it is well fixed See Release To Uncase is to take any Plant out of its Case Under Pasture is Mold taken from under the Turf of choice pasture Ground to improve the Soil of Gardens with Unhealthy is said of Melons or Cucumbers when they are troubled with a kind of Whiteness that decays them To Unpot is to take Plants out of Pots W. WAds of Straw See Wrap and Straw Walks See Allies Carpet Walks See Carpet Wall-Trees are Trees nailed couched and spread or displayed in a Decent and profitable Form against Walls Wasps are known insects See Cucurbits Water Courses are drains to carry off Water See Drains Dykes Gutters To Wean or Sever See Sever. Weeds are all noisom Herbs that annoy the useful Plants in a Garden To Weep or Bleed said of Vines See Bleed Windfalls are Fruit which the Wind blows from the Trees Red Winds See Red. Winter-greens are such Plants as are green all Winter See Ever-greens Wicks See Wrap Wood is the substantial part of a Tree that is solid and not tender Wood Branches See Branches To Whiten is to use art by Dunging Earthing tying up c. to whiten Plants and sweeten them to the tast To Wound is so to cut Trees in Pruning or otherwise as to hurt them and such hurts are called Wounds To Wrap as to wrap up Plants or tender Trees with Wads or VVisps of Straw to keep them from the Frost Y. YEllow Peaches are call'd Rossanes ADVERTISEMENT THe best Pruning-knives and other Instruments for Gard'ning made according to the Directions of Mounsr. de la Quintinye when last in London are Sold at Mrs. Gillyflowers a Toy-Shop next to the Kings-Bench in Westminster-Hall the Corner-Shop The Kings Kitchen Garden at
again and no Tree must be Prun'd above once a Year Keeping within these Bounds it will not be improper to Prune Weak Trees sooner and those that are Vigorous later As for the Cause there are two Reasons for Pruning the first to dispose Trees to bear finer Fruit and the second to render them at all Times more pleasing to sight than they should be if they were not Prun'd To attain the Effect of this second Condition must be by the means of the Figure that is given to every Tree That Figure must differ according to the difference of the Ground Plats and does not Extend beyond Dwarfs and Wall Trees for as for the generality high Standards are not Prun'd often The thick Branches only are capable of affording that Figure which is absolutely necessary to be well understood and must be had constantly in the Mind A Dwarf in order to be of a beautiful Figure must have a low Stem be open in the middle and of a round Circumference equally garnish'd on the Sides Of these four Conditions the most material is that which prescribes the opening of the middle the greatest Defect consisting in a Confusion of too much Wood in that very middle which of all things must be avoided The Perfection of a Wall Tree consists in having its strength and Branches equally divided on the two Opposite Sides in order to be equally furnish'd throughout the whole Extent of it whatever part the Head begins at whether it has a low Stem in which case it must begin within half a Foot from the Ground or high and then it begins from the Extremity of the Stem which is commonly about Six or Seven Foot The main thing in this depends on the Distinction which is to be made among the Branches and the good use that is to be made of them the Branches are either thick and strong or slender and weak every one of them furnishing us with a Reason to take it away or preserve it to leave it long or to prune it short Among both some are good and others ill whether Thick or Slender The good are those that grow according to the Order of Nature and those have thick or large Eyes pretty close to one another The ill ones on the contrary are such as grow against the Order of Nature have flat Eyes and at a great distance for which Reason they are call'd Branches of False Wood. To understand that Order of Nature you must know in the first Place that the Branches should only shoot from those that were cut shorter at the last Pruning and that all such as shoot from other Parts are Branches of False Wood. Secondly that according to the Order of New Branches if there be more than one that which shoots from the Extremity must be thicker and longer than that which grows immediately beneath it and this thicker and longer than the third and so of all the rest and consequently when any of them prove thick where they should be slender it is a Branch of False Wood. There are some few Exceptions set down in the Treatise of Pruning The good small Branches both as to Stone and Kernel Fruit are the bearing Branches and the good Thick ones are for Wood but quite contrary as to Fig-Trees and Vines As for the manner of Pruning it is generally look'd upon as much more difficult than really it is the Principles which are pretty easie being once understood there is no difficulty in the Operation and yet it is the Master-Piece of Gard'ning The Chief Maxims are First That Young Trees are much more easie to Purne than old Ones especially those having been often Ill Prun'd and not having the Figure they should have The best Gard'ners are very much put to it to correct those old Defects I have given particular Rules for such Inconveniencies Secondly That the strong Branohes must be cut short and commonly reduc'd to the length of Five Six or Seven Inches yet there are certain Cases in which they must be kept longer but those are not common I specifie them in my great Treatise Thirdly That among the others there are some that may be kept shorter and others longer that is even to Eight Nine and Ten Inches nay and to a Foot a Foot and a half and perhaps more especially in Peach Plum and Cherry Wall Trees which must be regulated accorded to their Strength and Thickness to be capable of Nourishing and Bearing without breaking such Fruits as they shall be Burthen'd with Upon Vigorous well Proportion'd Trees there can hardly be too many of those we call Branches for Fruit provided they cause no Confusion But as for the Thick ones which we call Branches for Wood for the Generality in all sorts of Trees only one must be preserv'd of all those that have been produc'd by every Branch having been Prun'd the preceding Year Unless the Trees being very Vigorous the Extremities of the new Branches chance to be very distant the one from the other and looking towards different opposite Parts being bare on the sides which of necessity will require being fill'd up for the perfecting of the Figure in which Case we may leave Two nay Three provided they be all of different Lengths and never form a forked Figure The Fruit bearing Branches perish after having perform'd their Duty with this Distinction that in Stone Fruit they die at the End of one Year or Two or Three at most And in Kernel Fruit not till after having served Four or Five Years Therefore foresight is of great Use to think betimes of providing new Branches to fill up the Room of such as we know are to die in order to avoid growing too bare and barren Those kind of Fruit Branches are good whatever part of the Tree they shoot from either Inwards or Outwards But a Thick one is always Ill when it shoots Inwards in a Dwarf unless it be to close such as open too much as it commonly happens in Butter Pear Trees So that the Beauty of the Trees and the Beauty and Abundance of the Fruit depend chiefly upon good Pruning the good Management of certain Branches that are at once Thick and Good and the taking quite away of such as are both Thick and Bad. And whereas it happens sometimes that a Branch having been left long the foregoing Year in order to bear Fruit receiving more Nourishment than naturally it ought to have grows thick and shoots other thick ones One of the material Points of Pruning consists not only in using this Branch like other Branches for Wood but especially in not leaving upon it any thick one grown on the Extremity of it unless it be with a design to let the Tree shoot upwards in order to make it a Standard This good Conduct teaches for the Generality to lower Trees I mean that it is better in Pruning wholly to take away the highest Branches that are thick preserving only the lowest than to do the contrary Provided always that
which had not been taken notice off before Those little Cares challenge as much esteem and kindness towards a Gard'ner as any other Testimony he can render it shews his being well Intention'd that he has some Qualifications that are but seldom acquir'd unless they be Natural viz. Affection Curiosity Neatness and a docible Spirit and indeed a Garden is generally in a very good Case under the management of such a Man It generally is the first in producing Novelties it is clean and free from Weeds the Walks are neat and well level'd and the whole commonly furnish'd with all that can be expected in every Season of the year happy are those who can meet with such and have no cause to complain as so many other Gentlemen daily do of their ill Fortune upon that Subject The scarcity of good Workmen of that kind is not to be wonder'd at while the number of Ingenious Men of most kinds is pretty considerable the source of the Ignorance of most Gard'ners proceeding from their knowing nothing for the most part but what they have seen practis'd by those under whom they first began to work Those kind of Masters had never learn'd elsewhere nor imagin'd of themselves the reason of every part of their Work so that not knowing it and continuing to work for the most part by chance or rather by rote they have been no more capable of teaching it than their Prentices of enquiring it so that perhaps excepting some Skill in grassing and couching the Branches of Wall-Trees in Tilling the Ground ordering of a Bed sowing and watering some Seeds clipping of Box and Pallisados which are all very easie to do and learn and may be learn'd by Boys seeing others do it I say excepting such kind of Works which are none of the most material it may be affirm'd that they hardly know any thing especially as to the main part of Gard'ning which is the Conduct of all sorts of Trees the beauty and singular goodness of every Fruit their Maturity well understood and an uninterrupted succession of the Novelties of every Month in the Year c. Indeed they have attain'd the boldness and dexterity of using the Saw and Pruning-knife but never had any Rules or Principles to do it Judiciously they venture to cut at random what they think good and so a Tree if I may use the Expression not being able to oppose its Enemies is mangled and maim'd discovering its Grievances by falling into decay by its ill favour'd Figure and especially by the small quantity of ill Fruit it produces This is in reality the common Prenticeship of Gard'ners or rather the Epidemical Disease of all Gardens I am not ignorant that there are some well meaning Gard'ners who without doubt would grow skilful were they well Instructed those deserve Pity and Assistance and therefore I never fail to assist them in all I can I am also sensible that there are some who either of themselves or having been brought up under a good Master have both Worth and Capacity and afterwards are careful of making good Prentices therefore it is good to have some brought up by such hands and approv'd by their Masters However though these Precautions might seem sufficient I am still of Opinion that before we ingage any farther especially only wanting a Gard'ner for an ordinary Garden it will not be amiss to find out some occasion to make the Gard'ner you have some Inclination to choose set his hands to some laborious piece of Work to see how he goes about it as to Till some spot of Ground to carry some Watering-Pots c. by which Tryals it will be easie to judge whether he has those necessary Qualifications of Body whether he acts naturally or forces himself if he be handy and laborious or clumsey and effeminate A man that is soon out of breath does more than his strength can permit and consequently cannot make a good Workman I mean a lasting one such a man is not fit for our turn unless we barely want one to order and manage which is not usual unless in great Gardens where such a one is absolutely necessary Supposing we are hitherto satisfy'd with the Answers and Work of the Gard'ner who offers himself there are still other very material Qualifications to be wish'd for as we have already mention'd First That he may be able to write a Letter for though writing be not absolutely necessary in a Gard'ner yet it must be granted that it is a very considerable advantage to the end that being absent from his Master he may be able to receive his Orders himself give him an account of his Garden keep a Register of all he does in it c. Secondly If marry'd it is sit that his Wife besides the Care of her Family may love and be capable of working about her Husband's Trade it is an inestimable Treasure for the Perfection of Gard'ning as well as for the good Fortune of the Gard'ner Such a Wife cleanses scrapes and weeds while the Master and his Men labour about harder more in haste and more material Works and when her Husband is absent or sick she calls upon every body to do their duty she gathers the Legumes and Fruit of which often a considerable part perishes for want of being gather'd in due time In sine she is to prevent a great many disorders which we observe where a Gard'ner's Wife does not love to work in the Garden I am of Opinion that it will be proper to see her to judge whether such important helps may be expected from her and see whether she be cleanly and has nothing disgusting in her To this I might add that in many Countrey Houses the Gard'ner is made House-keeper when his Wife is ingenious and cleanly which is always of great Use Thirdly It is necessary to enquire the Names of the Masters under whom this Gard'ner has learn'd his Trade when he cites for a good Master a Man of known Ignorance and values himself upon it it is a sign of Incapacity though in other things the Prentice may chance to know more than his Master There are yet some other Marks by which it may be easie to judge of the Merit of Gard'ners for instance I do not like a great Babler who talks of nothing but his Skill or affects hard Words which he thinks are fine though they really are not so Neither do I like him who without being able to give a good reason for it values himself upon equally despising what he has not seen as well as what he has seen who has so great an Opinion of his Ability as to think that he can learn nothing new who thinks he should wrong himself in inquiring after or hearkening to Men of Reputation as if this Wretch thereby fear'd to bring his Knowledge in question There are but too many who upon the Questions that are made to them answer with a disdainful Smile It would be a fine thing
three quarters of the whole Geometry satisfies us with good Reasons for all those differences which belonging not to my subject I omit Therefore I shall not define what Circumference a Garden may have nor what Expositions because I cannot but shall only tell you how many Trees each Exposition may admit in respect to two things viz. the heighth of the Walls and the goodness of the Ground for the better the Ground is the more Trees it is able to nourish the contrary may be said of that which is lean and barren likewise the higher the Walls are the greater number of Trees may be applyed to them that is to say we may place them so much the nearer one another and by this means order them so that between two which we may reserve to garnish the lower part of the Wall there may be always one to shoot up and garnish the upper part that so the upper and lower parts of our Fruit-Walls may be both garnished at once and consequently yield us Fruit so much the sooner and in the greater quantity The contrary is likewise true in respect of Walls that are low always considering withal the quality of the Soil that is to say the lower the Walls so much the further the Trees are to be placed one from another and those very distances must still be more enlarged when the ground is very rich than when it is but indifferently qualified And here it is needful to explain and make you understand the following Truth which seems a little Paradoxical Our design in Planting Wall-Trees is indeed to have so much the fairer Fruit but still more chiefly to secure the greater store of it but Trees do not infallibly yield Fruit unless it be upon feeble Branches and therefore we shall have no Fruit upon our Wall-Trees unless we contrive it so that we may have some feeble Branches on them And if the Trees he very vigorous as they are commonly in good Soils they cannot produce any feeble Branches unless they be allowed a great deal of room to spread out to the best advantage all those that are fit to bear because that supposing they be Planted too near one another and the Walls be not high enough they must necessarily be Pruned very short or else they will shoot above the Wall and consequently cease to be Wall-Trees or else they will so intangle their Branches one with another that they will make a very disagreeable confusion and such a one as will prove as prejudicial to the Fruit as if they had been cut too short If then they be Curbed in that manner that is to say if we leave them not Branches of some reasonable thickness and length all the young shoots they will produce will be always thick and thick ones bear no Fruit and consequently good Trees Planted near one another in a good ground will bear no Fruit and all through the Gard'ner's fault And therefore it follows by an undoubted consequence that in good Soils whose Walls are but low we ought to allow very considerable distances between Tree and Tree if we would pretend any store of fair Fruit from them and that when the Walls are higher we may and ought to place the Trees nearer one another as I have already shewed now I shall proceed to tell you what is my Advice concerning the Measure and Regulation of those Distances My Judgment is that no Walls of inclosure ought to be made less than Seven or Eight Foot high as well for the better security against Robbing and Spoiling to be apprehended from abroad as for the advancing and improving the goodness of the Wall-Trees I likewise am of Opinion that in the good Expositions it is not convenient to desire Walls of above Fifteen or Sixteen Foot for as for those of the North which we call bad ones the highest Walls are ordinarily the worst for they cast long shadows of pernicious influence to Gardens but yet we shall endeavour to make a good use of them and especially in Soils a little dry and in pretty hot Climates By all I have newly said about the heighth of Walls it appears that I have little value for those Leaning-Walls to pretend to make them Fruit-Walls for Pears Peaches Apricocks c. but they may serve for something else as I shall shew afterwards It likewise appears I do not much approve the extraordinary heighths of some topping Walls of Houses or of Churches though I make use of them very advantageously when I meet with any of them exposed to the East or South and that is particularly to raise Figs against them which as they love nothing so much as heat and shelter so they apprehend nothing so much as the Cold Winds and Scabbiness and High Walls are very proper as well to do them all the good they need as to defend them from the Mischiefs which attack them When I here so much extoll the Conveniences of the High Walls of the East and South Quarters I suppose it to be in Climates where the Heat is but small or at least very moderate for in those which are hot and burning as those of our Provence and of Spain and Italy or that exceed them still in heat as those Countries that lie nearer the Line in those Climates such Walls are as formidable and pernicious to Fruits which do but broil and cleave or chap against them and to Trees which they dry up and kill as the Northern Walls are uneasie and contrary to the ripening of Fruits in other places that offend in want of Heat and excess of Moisture CHAP. VI. Of the Distances to be observed between Wall-Trees BEfore I proceed to Regulate the Measures of the Distances to be observed in the placing of all sorts of Trees that are to be Planted against Walls because there are some kinds of Fruits that require very different Distances from others I think that for the better understanding of what I am to deliver upon that subject it will be necessary I should first examine what Fruits really deserve admittance to this choice situation and secondly which as unworthy are to be excluded Of the first sort are all the good kinds of Figs Peaches Plums Pears and Grapes with the Hasting or Forward-Cherries all sorts of Apricocks are also of that number with some Azerolls or Garden-Haws I speak expressly of the good kinds of every sort of Fruit to shew that I admit not indifferently to the Privilege of the Wall all sorts of Figs Peaches Plums Pears c. And then secondly those which ordinarily are excluded from it are Apples Mulberries Almonds ordinary Cherries Agriots Bigarros Quinces c. unless it be when we have so great a quantity of Walling that we know not as I may say how to dispose of it and therefore resolve out of Curiosity to fill up the superfluous places of it with some Trees of those sorts of Fruits Of all the Fruits that have rank and
a foot and because it is better to plant too high than two low at the end of some months my Trees will be found sunk about a foot into the Earth which is the justest measure we can assign them in that respect Trees planted deeper almost always dying in a few years When I have planted the corner Trees then I place a man at that rank I have a mind to plant to adjust the Trees with a line that they may be sure to be planted in a right line and I take another man with a spade to cover up the roots of the Trees as fast as I present them in their places and be informed by my line manager that they are right in the line and so in one morning I will plant four or five hundred Dwarf-Trees with ease It is yet more easie to plant in a little time a great many Wall-Trees because there is no need of using a line but in forming a Quincunce we cannot go so fast because that as every Tree must answer exactly to two ranks there must be two Aliners viz. one for each rank and there is always some time lost before the Tree can be placed so exactly as equally to answer two several ranks And we must not only be careful to plant our Trees a little high and very straight but we must be particularly mindful to turn their principal roots towards the good Soil this being the most important point of all so that though it be much to be desired that all Trees designed for Dwarfs should appear straight upright upon their feet after they are planted yet if the disposition of their Roots which perhaps naturally incline to Pirot or spread round require that the Tree should be a little stooped to give that good situation to its Roots which I desire they should have that is to give them scope to spread rather between two Earths than to shoot right downward I not only make no difficulty to hold the head or the top of the Tree a little stooped and that always over the line that is stretched out by it but I counsel it as a thing necessary otherwise the roots that shoot from such a Tree being naturally inclined to follow the bent of those out of which they sprout it will happen that those roots being forced to shoot downwards as low as the bad mold towards the bottom or beyond the reach of the rain water the Tree will thereupon grow sick and languish and will make an ill-favoured figure and bring but scurvy Fruit and will at last die From what I have said of the good situation of the roots it follows that if we be to plant any Trees along by the sides of any Walk or Alley we must take care to avoid turning the principal roots towards the Alley side and with much greater reason ought we to do the same when we are planting Wall-Trees and to take special care we leave not any good root of them in vain to spend its force and vigour against the Walls This stooping of the head in low Trees need not raise in us any scurple or put us in any apprehension of spoiling the beauty either of their figure in particular or of that of the whole plantation in general because it is not the same case with Branches that are to spring forth as 't is with roots for the Branches do not at all follow the Disposition of the stooping head on the contrary they grow regularly upright round about their trunk and so because their rise is very near the Ground their Trees make as a well shaped figure as if they had been planted upright upon their center It is the standard Trees that are to grow in the full air that we are necessarily obliged to plant as upright upon their center as 't is possible for otherwise their Trunks would always remain standing awry and consequently would make an unseemly figure and besides would be more subject to the insults of violent winds and be apt to be overturned by them and therefore for that same consideration they must be planted a little deeper than other Trees that is they must be placed a full foot deep in the Ground and though I caution people not to trample over the Ground where our small Trees are planted for fear of making them sink too deep and because they are in no danger of the Winds on the contrary I advise them to press the Ground as hard and close as as they can against the feet of these Standards to fasten them and make them the firmer to resist the violence of the winds After the planting of every Tree if I have the convenience of any dung-hills I put a bed of two or three Inches thick of dung over every Tree foot and cover it over at the same time with a little Mold to hide it from being seen as being no handsome sight This bed of dung is not so much to improve the Ground which I suppose already to be good and well prepared as particularly to hinder the burning heat of the Months of April May and June from penetrating to their roots and by consequence from putting them out of due temper and hindering them from performing their function which would cause no less than the death of the Trees If I want dung I content my self during those first dangerous Months to cover the feet of my Trees with a bed of Weeds or Fern I hinder any thing from growing there that may shade or cloud the young shoots and if there be a great drought as it often happens I order a pitcher of water to be poured upon each Tree foot every fifteen days during the three or four hot Months making first a kind of circular trench round the Tree that the water may pierce quite down to it and when the water is all imbibed I fill and make up this circle again even with the rest of the Ground so that 't is not discerned But if the season prove rainy those waterings will not be necessary And after all these preparations and precautions yet we commonly think our selves happy enough if we can Stock our plantations so well as to have but few Trees miscarry under our conduct CHAP. XXI How to order Trees planted for Reserves in Osier Cases or Baskets BUT notwithstanding all this because some Trees may happen to die and yet as far as 't is possible it is to be desired our plantation should be compleated the very first year I use to prepare a greater number of Trees than I have actually need of to fill up my plantation that I may always have some as 't were in a Body of Reserve and for that purpose it is my practise at the same time I am filling up my plantations to plant some Supernumenary Trees of every kind in Osier Cases or Baskets but more of Stone than of Kernel Fruits because those former most commonly are in greater hazard of dying than the others
it is thickest which is the Extremity where the point of the Blade meets when it shuts it has about two Inches and seven or eight Lines Circumference and on the other Extremity somewhat less than two Inches and thus one shall have folding-Saws which may be carry'd in the Pocket as easily as the Pruning-Knives the Blade closing into the Handle which will be very Convenient and very Necessary for a Gard'ner I do think it a very great matter to have good Tools but that is not enough there is some Skill requir'd to use them well either for the expedition of Business or to avoid some Accidents This is a Prentiship which generally costs some blood to those who begin to work without having had good Directions There are some necessary Precautions relating to the manner of placing the whole Body well and particularly of placing the left hand well without which a Learner is in great danger of hurting himself therefore I think it very proper to Instruct him in it at first To that end I say first that the Person must be dispos'd and planted near his Tree in such a manner as to stand firm so as to be able with ease to make use of his Instruments with his full Strength and Vigour In the second place he must hold his Tools as firm as can be that they may not turn in his hand And in the third place as to his Pruning-Knife he must always begin his Pruning that is to Cut on that side which is opposite to the Eye or the Branch upon which he cuts which must after that make the extremity of the Branch which is cut And in fine whether he cuts to the Right which is towards home and is the most common or whether he cuts with a back hand as it is often necessary and proper to be done he must still take care and use the precaution of putting his left hand underneath and close to the place which is to be cut there to remain as it were fix'd and to hold the part he grasps so steady that it may not stir or move in the least and so consequently resist the force of the Right hand in cutting otherwise if the left hand should quit its hold the Pruning-Knife would no doubt meet with it and wound it dangerously Besides this that Right hand must be us'd not only to hold the Pruning-Knife so that the edge may be mov'd Flat-wise and Horizontally but also use it to stop short after the effort it has exerted in cutting that you may cut nothing but the Branch or Root that you intend to Cut without touching any of the Neighbouring ones which must so carefully be preserv'd as neither to be any wise Cut or Wounded and therefore before you come to present the Pruning-Knife you must rightly observe the Situation of the Neighbouring Branches and partly consider not only how the hand must go in Cutting for that hand in moving must give a certain turn to the Pruning-Knife that the Point may meet with nothing but you must likewise feel how far the force you must use to carry off at once the part you design to remove may carry you lest the Pruning-Knife in its way might harm some of the Neighbouring Branches and this we call Cutting Dry as it must be done to Prune well that is to Cut cleverly so that if it be a Branch the Cut may be in some manner round and flat at least it must in no wise be long as Unskilful People do it and if it happen to be made long-wise you must make use of your Pruning-Knife again to take away that Deformity noting however that it must be done in a different manner from Roots which must be cut absolutely like the Foot of a Hind that is somewhat long-wise We have given a Reason for it in the Chapter of Plantations When by a frequent Exercise or habit of Pruning a Man is become handy and bold in Cutting he may very well especially in the Case of certain green Branches thick enough to be taken away I say he may very well place his left hand above the right to grasp and gently bend such Branches in drawing them towards him and by that means such Branches will really prove more easie to be Cut in so much that a Man will often be surpriz'd to find so great a Branch so easily cut off at one stroak but then this Left Hand must be at such a distance from the Right that the great strength he must use to cut at once the Branch in question may not carry it as far as that Left Hand and it is very necessary to observe that as in Cutting the Right hand moves towards the Left so that likewise should move away from it in carrying off as I may call it the Booty which the Right Hand has newly prepar'd for it or otherwise as we have already said that Left Hand wou'd run a great hazard of receiving a dangerous wound which happens but too often Let us say moreover that in order to Cut well every Branch must be within reach of him that Cuts it in so much that he may be able to Cut it without straining himself that is that such a Branch shou'd reach up to the stomach of the Gard'ner If it be much lower he must be forc'd to stoop so as to put one knee to the ground if it be needful and if that Branch be too high he must get upon something either a Ladder or Steps to the end that he may Cut it with ease and without straining himself for he would run a great bazard of hurting himself or of splitting the Branch in cutting it downwards It is not so dangerous to cut upwards provided as I have said the Left Hand be below the Right I may say by the by that Vine-Leaves are a Natural Balm to stop the Blood of the Wounds a Man receives in Pruning they take away the Pain and close up the Wound in a very little time The tenderest Leaves are commonly the best and for want of green Leaves the old ones may serve I have formerly Experienc'd that Remedy and often upon my self and have always found so much benefit by it that I willingly advise our New Virtuoso's to use it upon occasion As for the Saw those that are to use it must contrary to what is done with the Pruning-Knife as much as possibly can be place the Left Hand above the Right and lean hard upon the part which is to be Saw'd to hinder it from stirring otherwise the Saw would not play well That done they must hold the handle of the Saw in such a manner that the But-end may not reach above the middle of the Palm of the Hand and just underneath the Thumb where it must in some manner be stay'd or supported to move the Saw the better in order to which it is likewise proper that the Fore-Finger should be stretch'd along the Handle as far as the edge of the
we have said of the Preceeding We may with assurance Prune it the heighth we desire it at to begin a Fine Tree whether it be a Dwarf or Wall-Tree but if it prove not streight or without a probability of being streightned by some strong Ligature it must be us'd like the other that is it must be shorten'd quite low to make it produce another that may be streight otherwise the Tree would always be a-wry and consequently of an ill Figure still remembring that the Stem must be shorten'd close to the single Branch it has produc'd and we have Prun'd I will say here by the by that when we Plant a Tree we may according to appearances but not demonstratively and infallibly assure that it will take Root Yet less in case it do's can we assign in what part it will produce its first Shoot But as for the Fine Branches produc'd by a Tree that has taken Root which we have afterwards Prun'd we may with some certainty affirm that they will produce New ones on the Extremities on them which we have shorten'd and partly guess at the quantity so that this may be rely'd upon and consequently if our Tree has only produc'd the single Branch we speak of we may with certainty expect that being Prun'd somewhat short it will at least shoot two fine ones capable of performing in all respects what we have above establish'd for the beginning of the Beautiful Figure of a Tree I fancy then that as to this Branch shot from the lower part of our Stem we may partly allow it the same length we had allow'd that Stem in Planting the Tree that is about seven or eight Inches long what ever place we have Planted it in whether in Cold or Moist Ground or Hot and Dry. CHAP. XV. Of the first Pruning of a Tree that has produc'd more than one Fine Branch AS to the Fourth Case in which our new Planted Tree has produc'd two Fine Branches or three or four or more with some weak ones among them We are to make other great Considerations upon them which will engage us into different Chapters Viz. In the first place to know whether that Plurality of Branches be produc'd to ones liking That is whether they grow round about some part of the Stem whether at the top in the middle or in the lower part so that they may grow like a Branch-Candlestick for a Dwarf or like a Hand spread open for a Wall-Tree To know in the second place whether all those Branches are grown on one side and all over one another Or whether in Degrees at a great distance from each other tho' round about the Stem or if sometimes they are all grown from one and the same Eye and likewise whether it be on the top middle or lower part of the Stem Lastly to know whether all those Branches of themselves are dispos'd to open and spread or all of them to keep close together in a confus'd manner These are almost all the different ways in which the first short Shoots of every Tree newly Planted form themselves when it is so happy as to take Root again as it appears by the Figures hereunto annex'd I repeat again that I do not Consider here as any thing Considerable the little small Branches altho' they should be good to produce Fruit the very next year which is often true in Stone Fruit but seldom in Kernel Fruit Woe to that Tree what ever it be which produces many of these or no others however I will say what is fit to be done to them after having ended the most material part of my Work They are only the great Branches I value in this Case desiring to have a fine and good Tree these in respect to this have been the first Object of my Wishes and the only ones that can serve for the first foundation of my Tree that is in case they be Naturally well plac'd and I can give them a Pruning proper for my Intention and for the Beauty of the Tree I am to manage For as the first Branches tho' happy in their Original may very well be ill order'd and consequently give an ill beginning to a Tree being handled by an Unskilful Hand so likewise tho' those firrst Branches at their first Sprouting might happen to be found in a defective Situation may very well with a little time and good discipline be as I have said so Skilfully turn'd that the defect of their Birth may not hinder them from being Mothers to a Well-shap'd and Sightly Tree The different situations of the first Branches sometimes made by a Tree new planted Dwarfs The first Caution I am to give here is that commonly all the thick Branches which grow the first year upon new Trees are those we call Branches of false Wood their Eyes discover it and therefore must be Treated accordingly by Pruning and even the weak and slender ones are commonly in that respect of the same Form with the thick ones unless they did remain very short The second Advertisement is that the first Pruning I perform upon the thick Branches of New Dwarfs differs but little from that I use the first year upon New Wall-Trees It is true that in these I easily constrain the most obstinate Branches that is the worst grown to put themselves into the Posture I desire to attain the Beauty requir'd in a Wali-Tree it serves likewise to afford me more Fruit and finer it is likewise true that Dwarfs are if that Expression may be us'd a kind of half Volunteers which indeed do part of what they have a mind to themselves but yet commonly suffer themselves at the same time to be conducted by my Industry as well for the satisfaction of my Eyes as for the delight of my Pallate Only the Fruit-Branches can not be left so long upon Dwarfs as upon Wall-Trees because in those we have the Convenience of Tacking and Propping which we have not in others CHAP. XVI Of the First Pruning of a Tree that has produc'd two Fine Branches and both well Plac'd AS for what relates then to this Fourth Case in which a Tree newly Planted has happily and vigorously produc'd more than one Fine Branch with some weak ones among them If for instance it has on the top of the Stem two almost equally strong and well plac'd that is one on one side and another on the other nothing can hardly be desir'd better it is a very fair beginning to make a Fine Tree The only thing in question is to shorten them all equally within the compass of five or six Inches in length But above all you must take care that the two last Eyes of the Extremity of each of these Branches so shorten'd look on the Right and on the Left upon the two bare sides to the end that each of them producing at least two new ones these four may be so well plac'd that they may be all preserv'd and in order to that if it be
all be preserv'd you must examine whether among the three or four there are not at least two pretty well situated that is the one on one side and the other on the other and whether the Degrees are not too distant to permit you to frame upon those some Foundation for your Figure and that being so those may very well satisfie you cutting off the others within the thickness of a Crown-piece as we have heretofore establish'd The two that are preserv'd must be Prun'd with the same Regards heretofore explain'd for the Pruning of the two fine Branches whether we have them by Choice or by the good fortune of Vegetation which having given but two has given them in such a Situation as could be desir'd and Care must be taken that these two being Prun'd they may be found afterwards of an equal heighth though of a different length to the end that those that may shoot from them may begin our Figure happily for after that it will be easie to go on with what has been so well begun I do not repeat what is to be done to the good weak Branches having in my Opinion sufficiently observ'd that they must be carefully preserv'd for Fruit only shortning them a little on the Extremity when they appear too weak for their length not failing to take away the sapless ones whatever quantity there be of them CHAP. XIX Of the Pruning of Trees that have produc'd to the Number of five six or seven fine Branches IN fine our new Planted Tree may as it happens sometimes in good Grounds and particularly on fine Trees that have been Planted with all necessary Regards whether they be graffed upon Tree-Stocks or upon Quince I say it may have produc'd to the number of five six or seven fine Branches and even more It wou'd be a good Fortune if they shou'd be all so happily plac'd that they might be all preserv'd without causing any Confusion as I have met with it sometimes by which means it is easie to have soon a fine and good Tree But as it is a Rarety to find them all well plac'd I am of opinion that it will be sufficient to preserve three or four of those that a skilful Gard'ner shall judge both by their situation and strength to be the fittest for the Execution of our Design and so Prune them as we have explain'd in such a Case This being so he must wholly cut off all the others if they happen to be higher than those that are preserv'd especially if they be thick for if they are weak that is fit for Fruit-Branches he will do well to preserve them until they have perform'd what they are capable of doing In case then there be a necessity of taking away some of those highest that are thick they must either be cut off Stump-wise to amuse a little Sap in them during two or three Years or else the Stem must be shorten'd to them that are preserv'd especially the Tree not being very vigorous But if there happen to be some thick ones lower than those which we preserve for ever it is likewise convenient to preserve those low ones for a while provided they spoil nothing in the Figure because that for the space of two or three Years they employ a little of that Sap the Abundance of which is prejudicial to us both to compass Fruit and to arrive at a beautiful Figure But if such low Branches can annoy us then as we have already said they must be cut within the thickness of a Crown-piece or else take them off close when we find but a moderate Vigour in the Foot of the Tree I still forewarn that if among the thick ones there chance to be a great many weak ones you must be contented with two or three of those that are best plac'd and best condition'd breaking off the Extremity of the longest a little and not medling with those that are naturally short and passably thick and consequently you must wholly take away the others which would only cause a Confusion This in my Opinion is all that can be done for the first Pruning of Trees I mean for the Pruning of the first Branches they shall have produc'd in the place where they have been newly Planted CHAP. XX. Of the Second Pruning which is to be perform'd the Third Year on a New Planted Tree THE first Pruning of those New Planted Trees being perform'd and that upon the first Shoots they have produc'd the first Year of their being Planted we now must shew the Success it ought apparently to produce and what Conduct is to be held the following Year for the second Pruning I mean for the Pruning of the Twigs that shall shoot from the Extremity of those that have been Prun'd the Year before And to that End I think it will be proper to follow the same Order I have establish'd for the first that is for the Pruning of the first Shoots they had produc'd But before I come to that let us consider what is to be done to the Trees which had not succeeded well the first Year If the Fruit-Tree which without having produc'd any Branches the first Year has been preserve'd in hopes that having still been green and consequently alive it might do better the second I say if that Tree does not begin betimes that is even in the Month of April to shoot very vigorously it is an infallible Sign that it will never be good for any thing and therefore without losing any more Time it must be thrown away and one of those that shall have been brought up in Baskets in order to supply such Accidents plac'd in the room of it And likewise if the Tree which having only produc'd small Shoots in the first Year has been preserv'd the Stem of it being only shorten'd if that Tree I say does not at the very Entrance of the Spring begin to shoot fine new Branches I am also of Opinion that it shou'd without any hesitation be us'd in the same manner with the fore-going we have now been speaking of It wou'd be a kind of Miracle if ever it shou'd come to a Condition of affording any Satisfaction But if as it happens pretty often in the Case of Pear-Trees and sometimes but not so often in the Case of Stone-Fruit if I say that Tree thus taken down lower has shot fine Branches at its new Extremity as well as that which having shot but one at the top of the Stem has been likewise taken down lower than the place of that Branch then both the one and the other will fall in one of the Cases heretofore explain'd for the first Shooting of those new-planted Trees which have happily succeeded and so we have nothing particular to add to the Conduct that is to be observ'd for them Let us now proceed to the Tree which had only produc'd one fine Branch be it either about the middle of the Stem or at the bottom supposing always as we have
not the least Confusion that being the greatest harm that can happen to a vigorous Tree And whereas to moderate the great Fury of such a Tree in respect to our selves that is to make it bear Fruit the sooner two things are particularly required besides the Overture which are first the length and multitude of good weak Branches when they are plac'd so as to cause no Confusion and in the second place a considerable Plurality of Out-lets upon the thick Branches through which that abundance of Sap may perform its Effect since we cou'd not hinder it from doing it in some part of the Tree Therefore when the Figure of my Tree will permit it if some Branch prun'd the preceding Year has produc'd three or four all pretty thick ones I often do not retrench them so that having one or two of the best plac'd I preserve one or two of the others for the Pruning of the next Year and leave them reasonably long Besides this if I preserve the lowest I cut the highest Stump-wise and when I preserve the highest I leave under them either on the out-side or upon the sides one or two Stumps of the thick Branches form'd like the Hooks of a Vine each about two Inches in length as it appears by the Figure annex'd hereunto which succeeds very well to me There infallibly happens in those Stumps or Hooks a Discharge of Sap which produces some favourable Branches either for Fruit when they prove weak or to become in time fit Branches for the Figure when they are strong The best way always is to lower the Tree in taking away the highest Branches to preserve the lowest and not take away the lowest to preserve the highest to the end that if the Tree cannot fill both at top and bottom it may rather be dispos'd to remain low and well fill'd than to rise high without being well fill'd These kind of Stumps and Hooks will not please our Gard'ners at first who neither know my Principles nor the way of Cupping which we have explain'd here above But if after having known my Reasons and long Experience they will neither approve or try them so much the worse for them they must give me leave to pity their Ignorance or Obstinacy CHAP. XXIV Of the Pruning that must be perform'd the Third Year upon all sorts of Trees planted within Four Years THis Case does not require the preceding Distinctions we have made to determine what was to be done to Trees according to the smaller or greater quantity of Branches they had produc'd the first Year They must at the end of four Years be partly all of the same Classis though they be not all furnish'd with an equal quantity of thick Branches But however both the one and the other must have produc'd a sufficient number to shew a Head entirely form'd and though even that for Example which had produc'd but one the first Year shou'd have produc'd but four or five in the fourth still there shou'd be nothing to be said in respect to that since that if it be vigorous it will partly fall under the Case of a Tree which at first had produc'd four or five or more and if it be not of those that are capable of producing more than one thick Branch on the Extremity of the Pruning you must regulate your self upon the meanness of its Vigour both in keeping the thickest Branches short and expecting but one thick one on the Extremity of each making it ever grow on that part where the Figure requires it most We must always inviolably follow the Idea of a fine Tree we have first of all propos'd to our selves either in a Dwarf or Wall-Tree and never fail to proportion the Burthen of the Head to the Vigour of the Foot in leaving more and longer Branches on a vigorous Tree and less and shorter on that which appears weak And whereas many old Branches must be carefully preserv'd on a vigorous Tree especially for Fruit provided there be no Confusion on the contrary you must ease a weak Tree of the Burthen of the old Branches as well those that are for Wood as those that are for Fruit and out them short in order to make it shoot new ones if it can with resolution to pull it out of the Ground if not able to perform it which being done a better must be plac'd in its room after having taken away all the old Earth which may be judg'd to be either ill or worn out and having put new in the room of it I still forewarn that in Pruning Provision must be made for those Branches that may proceed from those that are Pruning in order to prepare some that may be proper for the Figure with this Assurance that when a high Branch is taken down over a lower this being strengthen'd by all the Nourishment that wou'd have gone to the highest which has been taken away this low Branch I say will produce more Branches than it shou'd have done had it receiv'd no Re-inforcement In short when according to my Principles a young Tree shall have been conducted to a fourth Pruning the Effect will infallibly have made good what I have promis'd both as to the beautiful Figure which must then appear in its prime and as to the Fruit of which Pears then begin to shew a Sample and Stone-Fruit abundance After this apparently every body must be capable thenceforward to manage all manner of Fruit-Trees without needing any other Instructions than the preceding and indeed I have no other new ones to give and it wou'd be ridiculous and tiresom to repeat the same things which in my Opinion I have sufficiently establish'd It seldom happens that all the Trees of the same Garden though order'd alike prove equally vigorous no more than the Children of the same Father all equally healthy Trees as well as Men are subject to an infinite number of Accidents that can neither be fore-seen nor avoided but it is certain that all the Trees of a Garden may be form'd agreeably in their Figure and this is one of the principal things to which a Gard'ner is oblig'd Above all I advise every body not to be obstinate in preserving Pear-Trees which yearly towards the end of Summer grow extream yellow without having produc'd fine Shoots nor those of which the Extremities of the Branches likewise die every Year They are commonly Trees graffed upon Quince of which some of the principal Roots are dead or rotrotten They are Trees that produce but small Roots at the upper part of the Foot and consequently Roots that are expos'd to all the Injuries of the Air and of the Spade The same thing may be said of the Peach-Trees that appear the first Years to gather Gum at the greatest part of their Eyes and of those that are extreamly attack'd with certain little Fleas and Pismires Such Peach-Trees have certainly some rotten Roots and will never do well I am likewise of the same Opinion for those
Trees that shoot on all sides an infinite number of little weak sapless Branches with some thick ones here and there both the one and the other for the most part of false Wood In which case a great deal of time may be lost upon ill-grounded hopes That which is best to be done in all these Occasions is as soon as can be to remove such Trees and when they are not extreamly old or spoil'd by the Roots venture to plant them again in some other place in good Ground after having cleans'd them of all their Rottenness and Cankers in order to see if they will come to any thing to make use of them elsewhere which happens sometimes with Pear-Trees but very seldom with Stone-Fruit especially Peach-Trees still putting better in the room of them with all the Conditions heretofore explain'd CHAP. XXV Of the first Pruning of Trees that have been Planted with many Branches AFter having sufficiently explain'd in the Treatise of Plantations my Aversion to plant little Trees with many Branches I am willing at present to believe that as I seldom plant any those who will do me the honour to imitate me will do the same However Those that will plant such must principally observe two things The first is to cut off whatever may cause a Confusion and is not proper to begin a fine Figure The second to leave a Length of about six or seven Inches to every Branch they preserve upon them And as for the other Branches that shall proceed from these they must regulate themselves upon the Principles which we have sufficiently establish'd for the Pruning of other Trees It is certain that such Trees planted with Branches are not commonly so easily turn'd to receive a fine Figure as those I affect to plant The old Branches that are left upon them are not often happy in producing others on their Extremity yet less to have them well-plac'd they generally produce them disorderly and consequently must be often wounded before what is desir'd can be met with but when at last attain'd 't is but following what has been said distinctly enough for the management of a Tree which having been planted without any Branches has since produc'd some very fine ones and very well plac'd And when Trees have been planted with a great many more and longer Branches than they shou'd have been so that there appears no manner of disposition towards the Figure we ought to wish for Endeavours must be us'd immediately to reduce them upon a fine Beginning and that conformably to the Ideas of Beauty so often explain'd What we shall say hereafter for the first Pruning of old Trees that have never been order'd well may serve altogether for the first Pruning of these without saying any thing more about it Though commonly either as to low Standards or Espaliers I condemn the manner of Planting little Trees with many Branches by reason of the Inconveniences which attend them in respect to the Figure they ought to have I am not however so severe in relation to high Standards in which I do not condemn it so much by reason that they do not require so great an Exactness for their Beauty So that I allow they shou'd be planted sometimes with some Branches on their heads when some are found well enough dispos'd for it they will certainly produce Fruit sooner than the others But still I have a particular Esteem for those that are planted without any There are some other Occasions in which a Tree may be planted with many Branches and that is in a great Plantation where some other is dead for supposing the Ground to be very good and other good Mould put into the Hole made to plant the other in such a Case a Tree may very well be planted with some Branches especially those Trees that are difficult to fructifie For Example your Lady-Thigh Pears without Rinds Virgoulez c. CHAP. XXVI Of the Pruning of High-Standards or Tall Body'd Trees AS the Number of Principles for the Pruning of Dwarf-Trees has been very great so the number of Principles for Pruning of High-Standards Planted in open Wind shall be very small For as to High-standards Planted against a Wall they all require the same Precautions as the little ones so that instead of medling yearly with those Great Trees I only desire as I have said in the beginning of this Treatise that they should be touch'd once or twice in the beginnings that is in the three or four first years in order to remove some Branches from the middle which might cause a confusion there or to shorten a side which rises too much or bring another nearer which extends farther than in reason it ought to do As for the remainder we must refer it to Nature and let her produce freely what she can there would be too much pain and labour to order these with as much Circumspection as the others CHAP. XXVII Of the first Conduct of Graffs in Slits made and multiply'd upon Old Trees in place either Dwarfs or Espaliers NOthing is so common in our Gardens as to Graff in Slits upon Old Trees be it either to be rid of some ill Fruit we are weary of or to improve some considerable Novelty that has been discover'd so that often we do not even spare good kinds of such Trees of which we have a sufficient Number Now as many things are to be said upon those sort of Graffs and first if the Tree has so little thickness as not to be able to receive above one as none are commonly apply'd without having three Eyes it may very well happen that every such Graff shall produce three fine Branches fit to lay the foundation of a fine Tree in which Case we must have recourse to what we have said heretofore of the first Pruning of a Tree which in the first year had produc'd three fair Shoots and may allow them about two or three Eyes more in length if as in all likelyhood it ought to happen the Graff has produc'd very Vigorous Twigs especially if the Tree appears inclinable to close In the second place if the Tree to be Graffed is thick enough to receive two Graffs as it is when it has a good Inch Diameter or a little more and if the two Graffs produce each two or three fine Branches as it happens pretty often then it is fit to study hard to avoid the great confusion that is threaten'd here by the great Proximity of Graffs and consequently we must study to open therefore among those Branches those that being thick and inwards form that defect which we must never suffer must be taken away either within the thickness of a Crown Piece or slopingly according as the Prudence of the Gard'ner and the occasion of the Tree shall prescribe After which not only the first Pruning shall be perform'd a little longer than that of the Trees that have been Planted within a year or two but a greater quantity of Branches must
Winter 43. Observation THE Extremities of the Shoots that come out when Autumn is almost spent especially after a great Cessation of Sap which happens sometimes are always bad their Colour which differs from the rest of the Branch shews it sufficiently and so being good for nothing they must be taken off being likewise subject to perish Gard'ners call them Branches of August 44. Observation WE say and with reason that it is commonly in our power to make Fruit-Buds grow where we please but it is not always so soon as we could wish 45. Observation WHen it comes to pass that a thick Branch being prun'd shoots three of which the highest proves of a good thickness the second weak for Fruit and the third thicker than the highest two Considerations must be had to Prune them skilfully that is if the highest be fit enough for the Figure it must be made use of and the third which is thicker cut slantingly or within the thickness of a Crown-piece But if this third Branch be better plac'd for the Figure it may be Prun'd as being a Branch for Wood and the highest left for a Fruit-Branch or rather for one of those that must be remov'd within a certain space of time supposing it causes no Confusion and that the Tree is very vigorous for if it causes a Confusion or the Tree be but of an ordinary Vigour it must only be cut Stump-wise for fear of losing the disposition which the weak one had for Fruit if we should wholly take away the highest over the weak one 46. Observation IT is always a happiness especially in Stone-Wall-Fruit-Trees when from the lower part of the thick Branch there shoots that very Year another thick one Our Trees are commonly but too much inclin'd to shoot upwards 47. Observation YOU must never upon any Consideration whatever preserve your sapless Branches not even if they were on the top of the Pruning of a vigorous Branch 48. Observation WHen Dwarf-Pear-Trees of Beurré bear Fruit they must commonly be Prun'd shorter than other Trees by reason that as they produce a great deal of Fruit and that that Fruit is large and heavy they are apt to open and spread too much which Figure is not pleasing 49. Observation DUring the Month of May one cannot be too careful in looking after Espaliers especially Pear-Trees to hinder good Branches from slipping behind the Stakes or Props from which they cannot be remov'd afterwards without either breaking them or the Lattice-frame 50. Observation A Young Pear-Tree languishing or decaying in one part may sometimes be re-establish'd if after having taken it out of the Ground and Prun'd it every where it be put into better Ground But there is no help for a decaying Peach-Tree especially Gum having appear'd upon it those kind of Trees seldom are reviv'd 51. Observation IF it happens that any Dwarf planted within the space of three four or five Years or of a longer standing not having been well order'd in the Pruning in order to form a lovely Figure or perhaps having been spoil'd by some unexpected Accident so as to be grown lower and thinner on one side than the other if I say it happens fortunately that such a Dwarf-Standard does shoot out of that defective side a Branch which being thick though of false Wood may seem proper to correct the defect aforesaid as it happens sometimes in such a Case it is fit to allow such a Branch a greater length than my Maxims have for the general regulated for Branches of false Wood to the end that this Branch being equal in heighth to those of the other side the Figure of the Tree may acquire the Perfection it wanted The defect of extraordinary length in a Branch is not certainly so great as that of being crooked flat or slender which it has now corrected in a Dwarf-Standard 52. Observation ALL the Sap of a Tree being employ'd in forming many Branches some strong others weak it will probably soon produce Fruit upon the weak ones But when it abounds and is confin'd within a very small number of Branches for the most part thick it will produce no Fruit any where until the great Vigour of it be in some manner wasted by the great number of Branches it will produce in Succession of Time which Branches must be preserv'd 53. Observation WHen Trees are hard to produce Fruit by reason of their being too Vigorous as those are we have so often mention'd especially certain Plumb-Trees that grow against a Wall one of the things I commonly do affect is to leave a great deal of old Wood upon them particularly for Fruit-Branches avoiding however Confusion and Thinness or Vacuity but still upon Condition that when a Branch left long for Fruit the first year shall afterwards shoot another on the Extremity of it which I likewise think sit to preserve upon Condition I say that in case that Second should shoot a Third the last must never be preserv'd which would cause a disagreeable length and yet would not answer our aim which is to get Fruit. In such Occasions I do one of these things viz. I perform my Pruning upon the Second the two having a sufficient length or else I Prune the Third which is shot from the end of the Second Stump-wise the two first not being excessive in length 54. Observation THere are some moments in which a Skilful Man's Thoughts may be roving while he is Pruning and so may chance to commit some Faults which commonly are not very material and are easily Corrected as for Example having left some Branches too long or having preserv'd some that should have been taken away therefore in my Opinion a Revise is very necessary to be done the next day if not that very day without which it is impossible to be fully cerain of what has been done it is with this as with all other Works in the World 55. Observation WHen one side of an Old Tree either Dwarf or Wall-Tree is extraordinarily Strong and Vigorous and the other weak and slender that is properly speaking when a Tree is Crooked and disagreeable to sight it is hard to reduce it to a fine Figure then a great deal of care must be taken about that Vigorous side in taking away the greatest part of the strong Branches close to the Stem whence they shoot or cut part of them Stump-wise in expectation that at last the Sap which inclin'd altogether on that side may turn it self towards that weak side at which time we shall be enabled to begin the Repairs which were wanting 56. Observation IN all sort of Trees care must be taken to allow less length to a Wood-Branch that is somewhat weak than to that Wood Branch which is thick and strong 57. Observation IT is pretty common in all manner of Trees especially when they are pretty Ancient to find certain weak Branches which without having ever born any Fruit are as it were threatned to perish for want therefore it is
of False Wood have been cut very short or shooting from a Stump or else when in the very Year they only begin to shoot a long while after the others of the same Tree this happens but seldom unless in Virgoulé-Pears which you must not wonder at and only Prune those kind of Branches that appear ill-condition'd leaving them of a moderate length for you must seldom allow much length to such Branches of False Wood. CHAP. XXX Particular Remarks for the first Pruning yearly to be Perform'd in February and March upon Trees of Stone-Fruit especially on Peach and Apricock-Trees either Dwarf-Standards or Wall-Trees I Shall not need to inlarge upon this Article of the first Pruning having already largely explain'd in General the Rules for all sorts of Pruning I shall only observe that the Fruit-Branches of the Trees above-mention'd are but of a small Continuance many of them Perishing the very first year in which they have produc'd Fruit and even without it their Blossoms having been spoil'd either by Gum Blasts or Frosts in the Spring in which Cases they must be wholly taken away unless they be grown considerably thick or have shot some fine Branches fit to bear Fruit the following year for in that Case they may last two years and even sometimes though very seldom three or four provided they still shoot some good Branches either on the Extremity of the last Pruning or in their extent But after that they must only be look'd upon as worn-out Branches and consequently of no use It is not so with the Fruit-Branches of Pear and Apple-Trees and even Plumb-Trees both the one and the other lasting pretty long that is much longer than those of Peach-Trees by reason that in their extent they shoot very good small ones which regularly produce Fruit until at last according to the Nature of Fruit-Branches they all perish intirely I may say here without any Vanity that in following my Method of Pruning Peach-Trees you may expect to have commonly much finer Trees more lasting and without doubt much more Fruit and even much finer than those who Prune another way which is Infallible provided the Weather be fair at the time of the Blossom and the Gum spoil nothing about the Branches and especially that the Trees be Planted in a good Ground The Curious are much to be pity'd when their Gardens happen to be in a cold ill Ground or when the Mould is worn because that the Trees seldom produce any good new Roots there and consequently abundance of the old ones perish Roots not being able to subsist without Action which is the Reason that so much Gum grows both upon the Stem and upon the Branches and even upon the Foot and in the Roots The Reason for which I say that my Method of Pruning greatly preserves and imbelishes the Trees is because it prescribes the being very careful in keeping pretty short all the thick Branches c. And as for the abundance of fine Fruits it depends Infallibly on the other Caution I recommend of preserving all the good Branches for Fruit without taking away any and the leaving no more Fruit upon them than they are able to nourish in order to its being very Beautiful When in the Months of February and March you design to perform the first Pruning upon Peach-Trees and that after having taken away all the Old dry Branches or such which through an extream weakness are of no use for you must begin by this in order to see clearly and distinctly what is to be done you find only two sorts of good Branches remaining of which the one which are weak ones are to bear Fruit the following years the Buds being already form'd and the others which are the strong ones are not commonly to produce any not having any Buds upon them but are to serve us for another use which is very material These weak ones are to be preserv'd with Care and even of a great length by reason of the visible appearance of present Fruit but without building any hopes upon most of them for the following year Nature will afford us others to supply the loss of those but still care must be taken that the length of those Branches be proportion'd to their strength being also perswaded that a Branch of an ordinary thickness is capable of nourishing a considerable part of the Fruit it seems dispos'd to bear So that at the first Pruning there is no danger in venturing to leave much upon it provided part be taken away at the second if there be Reason to believe there is too much As to the strong ones they must particularly be look'd upon in relation to the future and therefore must be cut short in prospect that according to the Order of Nature they will produce others of two kinds some thick ones for Wood and many small ones for Fruit which will certainly come to pass But above all Care must be taken to provide for the Branches that are to fill up the room of those slender ones which for the time being produce so good an Effect but are as it were no longer to be look'd upon as living since after their having produc'd their Fruit they must be taken away We have sufficiently explain'd the difference there is between weak Branches and Sapless ones therefore it will suffice to say that no long Branches must be preserv'd unless they be of a moderate thickness and have at the same time Fruit-Buds ready form'd for the present Year I commonly call none Buds but such as are double with an Eye for Wood in the middle and I value no others for Preserving unless it be on Troy-Peaches and early Peaches Moreover no Branch must be Prun'd short unless it be that being incapable of bearing Fruit in the present Year their Strength or Vigour may promise other Branches for the following Year or that the Tree having a vast quantity of Fruit-Branches and very few for Wood and all those very high there may be reason to fear that some of the lower parts or the middle may grow too thin for the following Years in which Case it is very proper to sacrifice some Buds and to that End shorten some of the finest and thickest among those that are over-burthen'd by them and so make them as we have said elsewhere Demy-Branches for Wood which is of very good use In the mean time we must observe that there are some very vigorous Peach-Trees which commonly are hard to bear Fruit upon which it is necessary as well as upon some furious Pear-Trees to leave Branches of a moderate thickness long though they have no Fruit-Buds at all Such furious Peach-Trees are your Magdalens some white Bastard-Peaches Bourdins Brugnons or Latter Violets c. that is when those Peach-Trees are young Upon such it is necessary to leave some long Branches though without any appearance of Fruit upon the apparent certainty of their producing a great many other weak Branches for the following Year◠and
much better than Orange-Trees it being certain that this Wood which of it self is pretty tender notwithstanding dries up at the usual Fall of the Leaves and consequently grows hard the reason of which is that the Roots of Fig-Trees ceasing to act within from the time the Leaves begin to fall on the out-side the Wood no longer receiving any new Sap ceases to fear the Rigour of the Season whereas the Wood of the Orange-Trees and Jessamins by the perpetual Operation of their Roots remains as tender in the Winter as it is all the rest of the Year Which is the reason that as the Sap continually rises particularly for the Nourishment of those Leaves that remain upon the Branches as well as for the Nourishment of the Branches themselves that Sap at that time as it were keeps both the one and the other so sensible to Frost and Moisture that thereby they often fall into those great Disorders known by every body which are almost the greatest they are liable to It being then granted that for the preservation of our Fig-Trees it is sufficient that the great Frost should not light directly upon their Branches it follows from thence that it is sufficient for the Conservatory to be reasonably close as well at the top as at the Doors and Windows insomuch that the Ground may have been pretty well frozen in the Cases and yet the Fig-Tree receive no prejudice by it So that a moderate low Cellar or a Stable or a Common-Hall which would be so pernicious to Orange-Trees and Jessemins may not be amiss for our Fig-Trees not but if that place were very moist it might harm them As also a Cas'd Fig-Tree remaining in the Winter without a Covering would be much more endanger'd than another in the main Ground for a thick Frost would kill the Roots as well as the Head whereas a Fig-Tree planted in open Ground would at least be preserv'd towards the Roots The Time of putting Fig-Trees in the Conservatories is the Month of November that is they must be plac'd there as soon as the thick or great Frosts are coming on there to re without wanting the least Culture or any Care besides the keeping of the place as close as can be and that only during the great Colds for excepting that time they need not be kept so close Lastly They may be taken out again about the middle of March and sometimes at the very beginning the Weather being very fair and the Seasons of great Frosts appearing in some manner past There is no need of staying till there is nothing at all to fear for the new Figs for then there would be a necessity of staying until the end of April it happening pretty often that until that time there are certain Frosts which blacken and kill them though reasonably thick The reason which obliges to take them out sooner is that it is necessary Fig-Trees should immediately enjoy the Rays of the Sun and some soft Showers of March and April in order to be able to shoot their first Fruit with success to the end above all things that those Fruits may insensibly be us'd to the open Air which must make them grow and ripen betimes it being most certain that the Figs which grow under Covert coming into the open Air are apt to blacken and so perish even without any Frost or considerable Cold a North-East Wind or excessive Heat in the first Days of their coming out destroying them without Redemption Whereas those Figs that have been a little enur'd to the Air have harden'd themselves so as to be able to resist notwithstanding the Intemperature of the Season In taking the Fig-Trees out of the Conservatory at the time prefix'd there are only two things to be done The first is to put them immediately along and as close as can be to some good Walls expos'd to the South or East and there leave them until the Full-Moon of April be past which is about the beginning of May. This situation is very necessary for them to enjoy the Aspect of the Father of Vegetation and be soak'd by the Rains of the Spring as well as to find some Shelter against the Morning-Frosts of the Remains of Winter which are those of March and April because that whereas this wonderful Fruit shoots out at that time ready form'd from the Body of the Branch presenting it self thus all on the sudden without the help of any Covering or being accompany'd with Blossoms or Leaves it must needs be very tender in the first Days of its Birth and therefore such Frosts which are very common and frequent at those times falling then upon them would prove very dangerous or rather mortal insomuch that though this Shelter be favourable to Fig-Trees both to such that are planted in the Ground as well as to those that are in Cases yet notwithstanding it is necessary to cover them with Sheets or Straw or long dry Dung or Peas-Cods when-ever they seem to be threaten'd by some Frost The cold North-West Winds North and North-East or some Haâ—â— or melted Snow seldom fail to occasion it in the Night after having commonly fore-told it the Day before Woe to the Gard'ner who neglects or does not improve the Signal of such an ill Omen The second thing that is to be done after having remov'd Fig-Trees out of the Conservatory and having thus plac'd them under shelter is to use the Phrase of Gard'ners to give them a good Wetting in every Case which is one good substantial Watering insomuch that all the Moat may be soak'd by it and there shall hardly need any more Watering until with some Leaves the Fruit begins to appear all together and even a little thick which is about the middle of April the Spring-Rains will supply other Waterings but this first Watering is absolutely necessary to soak the Ground a-new which after four or five Months Confinement was grown quite dry otherwise the Roots at the coming in of the hot Weather should not be capable for want of Moisture to renew their Action and consequently there should be no good Motion of Vegetation either to nourish and thicken that new Fruit the sooner or to afford us the sooner Leaves and new Wood with a Certainty that the sooner Fig-Trees shoot in the Spring the sooner we shall have the second Figs of Autumn I will take notice by the by here that the first Figs grow independently from the Action of the Roots just as the Blossoms of other Fruit-Trees open and produce their first Buds independently from the Action of their Roots Lastly The Cold that is the great Enemy of those Figs being gone which happens commonly about the middle of May the Cases must be remov'd from that Shelter and put somewhat at large to be in the open Air especially in some little Garden well surrounded with good Walls they may be dispos'd so as to border or form Allies on both sides or else a little green Wood as I do
when there are enough for it which is that I call and ought to be call'd a Figuerie or Fig-Garden As soon as these Cases are thus dispos'd of they must be allow'd another good Watering the same to be continu'd once a Week until the end of May after which they must be Water'd at least twice a Week and lastly towards the middle of June they must receive great and frequent Waterings almost once a Day But before I come to this in order to gain Time and to get with ease a great many Fig-Trees for the Establishment and Maintenance of my Fig-Garden I begin by making towards the middle of March an ordinary Bed or Colich of good Dung of about three Foot high in proportion to four or five Foot in Breadth and as much in Length as my Occasion requires I let the great Heat of it pass which commonly lasts five or six Days after which having provided Earthen Pots about five or six Inches Diameter or small Cases about seven or eight I fill those Pots or Cases with the Mould of the Garden mix'd as I have said with an equal quantity of Soil or small old consummated Dung or with nothing else that Soil being very good for the first Multiplication of Roots but would not be so good for the other Casings Care must be taken to press that Earth very close into the bottom of the Pot as well as in the bottom of the Case it will suffice to have two or three Inches loose on the top After this I take small Fig-Trees altogether Rooted and after having extreamly shorten'd all their Roots I put them about three or four Inehes deep into the said Pots or Cases allowing each but about four or five Inches Stem Fig-Trees in Cases cannot be too short body'd Afterwards I put the said Pots or Cases up to the Middle in the aforesaid Bed A considerable part of those Fig-Trees so Planted commonly take and produce that very Year some pretty fine Shoots and in a pretty good number provided as is absolutely necessary they be well Water'd during the Summer and that the Bed has been heated twice or thrice on the sides to keep it always reasonably hot When I make use of Pots I take out of the Pots that very Summer or at least in Autumn or the following Spring those little Fig-Trees that have shot well in those Pots to put them together with the Mote into Cases of about seven or eight Inches fill'd up with the prepar'd Earth which above all as I have already said must have been press'd close into the bottom to hinder that Mote and the new Roots that shall grow from descending too soon and too easily into that Bottom and to do it yet more effectually in Casing of them I observe the same Method as in Casing of Orange-Trees excepting only Rubbish and pieces of old and dry Plaister which are no wise necessary here that is I Plant these Fig-Trees in such a manner that the Superficies of the Mote may exceed the Edge of the Case about two or three Inches and with Douves put on the sides I keep in the Earth and the Water of the Waterings so that none of it can be wasted the weight of the Cases and especially the frequent Waterings together with the moving or transporting of the Fig-Trees so Cased sinking the Surface but too soon Great Care being taken to Water those young Fig-Trees in those little Cases they begin pretty often to produce Fruit in them the very Year of their being Cas'd at least they are in a Condition to produce some the following Years They must be kept two Years in those kind of little Cases in order to be put next into larger of about thirteen or fourteen Inches in the in-side in order to which two thirds of the Mote must of necessity be taken away Planting them especially as I have already said a little high and pressing the Ground as close as can be into the Bottom Which things must all be done of necessity at every Removal out of the Cases They are to remain in these until there be a necessity of changing them a-new which must be done as soon as the Fig-Trees are observ'd to shoot no more thick Wood which commonly happens at the end of the third or fourth Year after their being Cas'd At which time they must be taken out of those Chests and after having perform'd the Operations heretofore explain'd put again either into the same Cases if after having serv'd three or four Years they are still good enough which happens but seldom the great Waterings rotting many of them or into other new Cases of the same Size Those Fig-Trees must be left three or four Years longer in those kind of Cases being about thirteen or fourteen Inches in the in-side and afterwards as soon as it is observable by the Marks above explain'd that there is a necessity of changing them the same Method as before must be us'd to put them into other Cases of seventeen or eighteen Inches in which they must likewise be preserv'd for the space of three or four Years at the end of which they must be remov'd again for the fourth time in the manner aforesaid either into the same Cases or into others of the same Size The difficulty of Transportation commonly hinders me after the wearing out of these second Cases of eighteen Inches from venturing to put them into larger which notwithstanding would be very proper for them being about twenty one or twenty two Inches which however should be the last I would remove them into unless I had very great Conveniencies both for the Transporting of them and for the Laying of them up And whereas at length those Cased Fig-Trees would grow to such a degree of largeness and weight as would require too many Machines to move them and even too great a quantity of Water to give them due Waterings I abandon them after having Cultivated them for the space of fifteen or twenty Years and take no farther Care of them than to Plant them either into our own Gardens or in some of our Friends for which they are yet good enough provided Care be taken to cut off a considerable part of their Wood and especially the main part of their Roots or else with a great deal of Regret I resolve to burn them But in the mean time in order to have my Conservatory and my Fig-Garden always equally fill'd I yearly rear up new ones in the manner aforesaid which serve to fill up the room of the old ones I have been oblig'd to part with The best of it is that the Breeding of them is easie First Because the Feet of the Fig-Trees that are Planted in the main Ground shoot abundance of Rooted Suckers Secondly Because it is very easie to lay Branches into the Ground round about every old Foot in order to their taking Root And Finally because some may be bred by means of bended Layers plac'd a little in the
the Conditions that were to be wish'd for for them Great Winters do not happen so often as to discourage us for ever from having some of those kind of Trees which produce such an Excellent Fruit. The most material thing in this Case for the Culture is first during the Summer and Autumn to give their Branches some liberty the Fruits growing better and more easily upon them They must neither be Constrain'd nor Pallisado'd or tack'd like the Branches of other Wall-Fruit-Trees it will suffice to uphold them before with some Pearches barely plac'd upon great Hooks driven into the Walls so as to be at three foot distance from each other and that beginning from the bottom there may be a Row within a foot of the Ground Checker-wise Those Hooks must be four Inches into the Wall and about eight on the outside made as it appears in the Figure In the second Place every Year as soon as the Leaves of Fig-Trees are fallen that is as soon as the Winter draws nigh whatever that Winter may prove for we must always 〈◊〉 its being Violent which dread ought to produce good effects in us every year I 〈◊〉 we must as much as can be constrain the Branches of those Fig-Trees as near as we 〈◊〉 to the Walls either with Nails and List or else with Osirs Poles and Pearches but yet so that they may neither break nor crack after which must be apply'd to them a 〈◊〉 made of Straw about two or three Inches in thickness or else bare Straw in the 〈◊〉 of those Frames or rather Long Dung about the thickness of four or five Inches all 〈◊〉 being well prop'd with Pearches most broadwise and some crosswise taking care that no part may remain bare and expos'd to the weather Besides all which another parcel of the same long Dung must be kept ready near the Fig-Trees to double the Coverings if need be one single Night being sufficient to ruine all North East Winds as we had them in the Winter 1676. and the South Winds like unto those of the Winter 1670. are likewise sometimes Mortal for Fig-Trees and commonly more than full North so that a guard must be kept equally against them all Whenever then any body designs to have Fig-Trees they must be prepar'd to take all the Care we have mention'd as necessary for their Preservation But when notwithstanding all this some prove so unfortunate as not to succeed which without doubt will happen but seldom provided the Walls they stand against are condition'd as aforesaid Although I say this should happen in my Opinion it ought not to trouble one since nothing has been wanting that lay in the Power of Man The Winter being past and even the Month of March almost quite spent if the Fig-Trees stand against the Wall only half their Covering must be taken away especially that part the Winter may have spoyl'd or rotten and leave the Branches still fix'd thus to the Wall at least always half cover'd without altering any thing about them until the Full Moon of April provided always that if the Full Moon of March which happens in the Passion-Week seems to threaten some Frost as it often does you must not fail at the least signal of it to redouble the Coverings immediately there to leave them until the Weather appear more certain and the Figs are grown to the bigness of a Large Pea which in our Climates seldom happens until the beginning of May for as we have already said the main part of the great Colds seldom leave us 'till then At which time it will be proper to put some small Branches heretofore ty'd and constrain'd at liberty but yet as I have likewise said not without propping them with Pearches crosswise to hinder them from falling too much forward This in my Opinion is a sufficient stay those Pearches put upon Hooks supporting the Branches very well and hindering them not only from falling but also from breaking and being ruffled by the Wind and the Fruit is thereby preserv'd sound and intire I must farther add that Large Sheets are proper enough to cover during dangerous or suspected Nights Fig-Trees being near the Wall either Planted there or in Cases to which end they must be fasten'd to the Pearches like Sails to Masts and besides put other long Perches almost straight over the Fig-Trees to hinder the Sheets being agitated by the Winds from touching the Fruit the rubbing of the Sheets against them never failing to spoyl them so that it will likewise be convenient to tie those Sheets near the Ground by means of some Hooks that may hinder them from such Agitations The third Material thing to be done for the Culture of those Fig-Trees is early to remove at the end of Winter or even at the end of Autumn the greatest part of the Suckers or Layers they shoot from their Foot without preserving any unless it be some that may appear to be of use either to fill up the sides or to supply the room of such as are dead or dying Besides a good use will be made of those Suckers or Layers Planting them in some Trench made on purpose for it near some good Wall and whether there or elsewhere Care must be taken to cover them so well that the great Cold may not be able to spoil them It is not less necessary to hinder as much as can be those Fig-Trees from raising soon to a great heighth for Example to two or three fathom to the end that keeping them always of a moderate heighth they may consequently always remain full and well furnish'd especially easie to cover in the Winter time which cannot be when they are too high Therefore from year to year the thick new Branches must seldom be allow'd more than a Foot a Foot and a half or two Foot at most which is the only Pruning they require after having as we have already said clear'd them from all manner of dead Wood. Moreover towards the end of March it is fit to break the end of the Extremety of every thick Branch which may chance not to be above a Foot in length provided the Winter has not already spoil'd it which happens commonly to such as have only been finish'd a great way in Autumn but seldom happens to such as have been perfected betimes however that end which appears black wrinkled and dead must be cut neatly This Method of Pinching or Pruning serves to make several New Branches grow forked instead of shooting single which in regularity would have grown straight that end being indeed a real beginning of a Branch This breaking then promises a greater quantity of Figs either for the second which is most common or for the first of the Summer for the following year it being certain that from the Navel of every Leaf a Fig will infallibly grow and sometimes two at once for one of those two Seasons This Breaking or small Pruning of the Bud which appears on the Extremity serves besides as
before Midsummer generally owes a Fig either for the Autumn of that very Year which is most common or for the Summer of the following Year when the Fig has not appear'd in Autumn This being so it happens almost always that abundance of those Figs for Autumn do appear which grow in vain by reason that they seldom ripen the cold Rains that are frequent and common in Autumn and the white Frosts of the Season killing them almost all either in making them burst and open and so fall or drop or else hindring them from growing to Maturity And as for these it is not to be expected that notwithstanding they have been preserv'd Green in the Winter and well fix'd to the Tree the Renewing of the Sap in the Spring should bring them to any Perfection it being most certain that they will drop without coming to any thing But as for those Figs we call Figs of the first Sap or Midsummer Figs as they only grow in proportion to the Shoots and Leaves shot from Midsummer till towards Autumn and that often Fig-Trees particularly in Cases produce but few Branches and regularly short having but little Vigour in the Summer and yet being oblig'd to nourish their Fruit it follows consequently that they produce but a small quantity of Fruit for the Spring the weak Branches neither being capable to bear any at that time nor when they do bear them of preserving them against the Cold of the Season wherefore it is fit to have very particular Regards in order to make Fig-Trees and particularly those that are in Cases produce fine Shoots after Midsummer which depends upon the Vigour of the Foot and more particularly on the Assistance we ought to afford it when in that Condition When some Branches are preserv'd being somewhat weak they must be kept very short to the end that the Remainder may be the better nourish'd and that the Figs if any can grow upon them may grow the finer but still upon condition that if any other weak Branches should shoot from those they shall all be taken away and none preserv'd unless perhaps the lowest which thereby may grow to a reasonable thickness The same Care that is taken of Fig-Trees in Cases just after the Winter placing them in good Situations ought likewise to be taken to place them also in proper Situations at the Coming in of Autumn to the end that in order to the Maturity of the Figs of that Season they may receive the Benefit of the little Heat the Sun affords us at that time But then none of the Roots must be allow'd to get out of the Cases by reason that there being a necessity of pulling them out in transporting of the Cases both the Tree and Fruit would suffer considerably by it which must needs create a Subject of Trouble But then the only Remedy when the bottom of the Cases has touch'd the Ground in the Summer time the Roots of the Fig-Tree having extreamly multiply'd there and the Trees being really the better for it so as not to stand in need of such frequent Waterings though at the same time it rots the Cases the sooner the bottom of the Cases having thus touch'd the Ground it will be necessary before they are put in the Conservatory to cut all those Roots well or at least it must be done at the Taking them out again before they are carry'd to the place where they are to remain all the Summer for whatever part of them has been expos'd to the Air absolutely spoils But after having taken off what is spoil'd those very Cases being again put upon the Ground the Roots will multiply again more than the Year before And it is not amiss to sacrifice thus some Cases especially such as begin to be old and of which the Fig-Trees have been long Cas'd Moreover Whereas the first Figs may always ripen whatever Situation they be in the Heats of the Summer being sufficient for that it induces me to place Fig-Trees willingly into the West Part and pretty often likewise to the North by which means I have Figs much longer those that are plac'd in those indifferent Situations ripening after the others so that they almost supply the Interval between the First and the Second In which I advise others to imitate me but yet upon condition not to expect Autumn Figs from such Situations unless the Season proves extraordinary fine and dry And when Fig-Trees have been plac'd in such Expositions or Situations great Care must be taken to cover them yet better in the Winter than those that were plac'd in the other Situations Particular Precautions must be had for Fig-Trees Planted in the Ground especally not to place them under the Spouts of great Coverings which might threaten them with too much Water and particularly with a great deal of mizling Frost as well in the Winter as in the Spring And in case there be no other place proper to Plant them in those Spouts must be turn'd some other way by means of some Wooden or Leaden Gutter As to the Method of Pruning Dwarf-Standard Fig-Trees there is nothing to be added to what we have already said of those that are Planted against Walls or in Cases The Dwarf-Standards will not produce Figs altogether so soon as those Fig-Trees that are well Expos'd and even later than those that are in Cases which being heated by the Sun on all sides of the Case ripen as we have already said a little sooner than the Dwarf-Standards and even sooner than the Espaliers Those Dwarfs will likewise be a little troublesom for the Coverings of the Winter and therefore it is dangerous to have any of those unless it be in very little private places and those shelter'd from great Frosts they will likewise be apt to cause a Confusion if being in a good Soil Endeavours be us'd to keep them low and to hinder them at the same time from producing great Shoots For which reason it will be necessary to Pinch them carefully and to have always some thick Branches Prun'd low and finally to clear and free them often as well from so many old worn out Branches as from all new Suckers To that End such Dwarf-Standards must always be kept at a very considerable distance from each other in order to lay a great many Branches yearly into the Ground thereby to ease the whole Body of the Tree suffering it to grow in breadth as much as it pleases As to their Coverings Care must be taken at the End of Autumn first to assemble and close their Branches together with Oziers and Poles fix'd into the Ground that they may form a kind of Bowl or Pyramid closing it afterwards with long dry Dung as we have done to Fig-Trees in Espaliers but yet they must not be uncover'd quite altogether so soon as the others that are shelter'd by a Wall and the Coverings must by all means be renew'd during the Spring After having explain'd my Method as well as possible
Branches as they have Eyes or Buds those Branches growing thick would in course occasion a great Confusion for even when the Branches are not shortned they notwithstanding shoot during the Summer abundance of those Buds which must be carefully pull'd off as being very Useless Happy are those who are in such Situations where Muscadine yearly ripens well I cannot forbear envying their good Fortune a little Happy likewise are those who having Muscadine in an indifferent Climate and pretty ill Ground are favour'd with such a Summer as we had in the Year 1676 for it is most certain that we have Reason to be contented with that Years Muscadine But it is not sufficient for our Vines to have abundance of fine Bunches and those not over stock'd with Grapes nor for the Season to be favourable to make them Ripen well we have besides other considerable Enemies to dread for those Grapes as well as for Fig-Trees which are besides some Frosts which make the Leaves fall and long Cold Rains which Rot the Grapes Birds and Flies of several kinds as to the first the first the best way to prevent their Mischief is to hang Nets before those Grapes which will hinder the Birds from coming near it but that remedy is not very easie when there is abundance of Muscadine to be preserv'd As to the Flies we have the Remedy of Viols that must be half filled with Water mix'd with a little Hony or Sugar which Expedient is sufficiently known by every Body those Viols must be hung up in divers Places about the Vines with some Pack-Thread and those Infects seldom fail of getting into them being attracted by the Sweetness of the Honey and Sugar and there certainly perish as soon as they are got in not being able to find the way out again at least abundance of them are destroy'd that way tho' it is almost impossible to destroy them all Care must be taken besides to empty those Viols when any Considerable number of those Flies are taken otherwise no more of them would be taken the Corruption and Stink they are Subject to hinder the others from coming there Then the said Viols must be fill'd up again as before and plac'd a-new in proper Places Paper bags and Linnen Cloths are likewise us'd to cover every Bunch but besides that it is a kind of Slavery if on the one side it serves to preserve the Grapes so inclos'd from the Birds and Flies on the other side it hinders the Sun from affording them that same Yellow Colour which is so agreeable to sight and Contributes to make them better as well as to show their perfect Maturity For to imagine that it preserves the Grapes the longer ripe is an Error I have experienc'd The Reason is that Fruit begins to Rot as soon as it is throughly Ripe and even sometimes before and as soon as one Grape is tainted it spoils the next 〈◊〉 next another and so ad infinitum which is a very considerable Inconveniency not so easily discover'd when the Grapes are enclos'd as when they are bare as soon as a Grape looks tainted it must be pick'd to hinder it from infecting the rest I must not omit adding that in such years as produce an infinite quantity of Bunches as the year 1677. it will be fit to take away part of them in those places where they are too thick as also too thin those Bunches that appear too close or too full as well as to shorten on the lower Extremity such as seem too long that Extremity never ripening so well as the Top which always ripens the best of any other part I should likewise add that no Grapes must be gather'd especially Muscadine until it be perfectly ripe since perfect Maturity is absolutely necessary to afford it that sweetness and flavour without which nothing can be less agreeable than Muscadin But this Advice shall be compos'd in one of the Chapters of the following Part wherein I shall examine whatever relates to the maturity of every particular Fruit. The End of the Fourth Part. OF FRUIT-GARDENS AND Kitchen-Gardens VOL. II. PART V. CHAP. I. Concerning the Care that is Requir'd to Pick Fruits when they are too abounding WHereas the Intention of our Culture is not only to promote fair Fruit but especially to have it fine and large hoping thereby and with Reason that it will be the better for it goodness seldom failing to attend Beauty and Largeness of Size And whereas neither Pruning nor the Trimming of the Buds and useless Branches the Tillages or Improvements of the Ground are always sufficient to afford us this Beauty and Size it follows from thence that there is something else to be done which is that I am to Treat of here It is certain that when we neither meet with Frosts or North-East Winds at the time that the Trees Blossom and the Fruit knits that is in the Months of March April and May I say it is certain that pretty often in some parts of the Tree there remains too much Fruit for it to be very Beautiful for in the first place in Relation to Kernel-Fruits whether Pears or Apples it is most certain that every Bud commonly produces many Blossoms and consequently may produce many Fruits that is to the number of Seven Eight Nine and Ten c. In the second place as to stone Fruits altho' every Bud excepting only plain Cherries Morello's white and black Hearts and Bigarreaux produce but one single Fruit for indeed one Peach-Bud and one Plum-Bud only produce one Peach and one Plum yet as every one of their Fruit-bearing Branches is commonly burthened with a great number of Buds all close to one another it follows that upon every one of those Branches there may remain an excessive quantity of Fruits and therefore the same Argument we use for the Buds of Kernel-Fruits may stand good for this which is that the more Fruit there knits upon one Bud the smaller the Portion must be which at the shooting out of the Stalk out of that Bud distributes it self to every individual Fruit insomuch that if the quantity were less 't is most certain that the Portion of every one of the remaining would be the larger and consequently the Fruit being the better fed would be larger and commonly better So likewise the more Fruit there is upon a Branch of Stone-Fruit Peach Plum or Apricock-Trees c. the smaller is the portion of Nourishment which distributes it self to every Peach and every Apricock on such Branches so that had there been less upon every Branch the Fruit would certainly have been better fed and consequently larger and commonly better since indeed it is almost impossible to have at once Largeness Beauty and Goodness when there is too much Fruit either upon one and the same Bud or upon one and the same Branch It follows from thence that a Skillful Gard'ner who takes care to make his Trees Blossom which is in some measure in his Power to
Olive-Trees in hopes to get Bunches of Oyl or to Graff good Fruits upon Plain-Trees or Ash and Cherries upon Lawrel Chesnuts upon Beach Trees Oaks upon Elms Wallnuts upon a Shrub and all in hopes of raising new kinds of Fruits and therefore tho' with submission and respect to the memory of Great Men I must needs say that all their Attempts have for the most part been faulty it is sufficient that all good kinds of Fruits may be Graffed with success upon Wildings or other Stocks of a Nature approaching to theirs and the only use we ought to make of the Visions of the Curiosos which have preceeded us is to avoid falling in the same Inconvenience with them in losing so much time and Pains as they have done in making a thousand such Extraordinary Essays Now in order to enter upon the Matter you must know that as I have already said else where Graffing and Enter or Ingrassing are Sinonimous Terms only us'd in Gard'ning which without doubt are meerly of the Institution of our own Tongue and my reason for it is that they have no relation to the Latin Term Inserere which apparently has preceeded them and signifies the same thing with this difference that it is much more significant But however to give as perfect a Notion of it as we can we are oblig'd to say that those two Terms have the same signification as the Latin Term to Plant part of some Tree which we valued upon some part of another Tree of which we do not like the kind this manner of Planting is very singular and causes as the Prince of Poets tells us the head of that last Tree to change its kind in the whole or in part according to the Intention of the Gard'ner thus an Almond Tree becomes a Peach Tree a Quince Tree a Pear-Tree c. Another Illustrious Poet of the same Age casually speaking about that manner of Graffing says very Ingeniously that it is a kind of Adoption Introduc'd among Trees by means of which good Trees are Multiply'd with ease in making use of those Stocks which produc'd none that were good This alteration of Kind or this Adoption cannot be perform'd without some operations of which the very names are Capable to strike People with Horror Heads to be Saw'd Arms to be Cut Bodies to be split Ligatures Plaisters Incisions c. The explication of what relates to this matter of Graffs will unriddle this Mystery clearly In the first Place it is to be noted that Graffing is not perform'd all the Year round but only in certain Months Secondly that in relation to the Trees you Graff upon you must of necessity Cut and retrench a great deal of them sometimes immediately and at other times only five or six Months after that is a considerable part either of the Stem or Branches and that without meddling in the least with what we call the Foot of the Tree This Tree being as it were Ignorant of what has been done to its Superiour Part and Subsisting still that is continuing to Act in the Ground as it us'd to do and tho it no longer has occasion to Nourish either the Stem or Branches which it had Originally produc'd and were its real Offspring this Foot I say in obedience to the Gard'ners Industry labours to stretch out thicken multiply and cause to Fructify either the bare Eyes or Buds or the foreign Branches that are Substituted while small upon its Stem or Branches and those new Branches in the sequel taking the room of those that have been retrench'd become the Adopted Children of that Foot and Joyn so perfectly and so closely to it that they appear to be absolutely its Legitimate Offspring whence it follows that its Function for the Future is no other than to serve as it were for a Nurse to these new Infants In order to understand this Description of Graffs perfectly which hitherto appears obscure and enigmatick it is necessary in the first Place to declare the different kinds of Graffs that are in use Secondly the proper time to make them and finally the manner of making them well there are great differences among the one and the others In the next Place we shall add which are the proper Stocks that have a Natural Disposition to receive certain kinds of Fruits and can agree with no other CHAP. XII Of the kind of Graffs that are in use THE Graffs that are most commonly us'd are Inarching Budding or Inoculating the Cleft the Crown or Graff's between the Wood and the Bark and Whip-Graffing Inarching is for Chesnuts Marons Fig-Trees c. Budding or Inoculateing is for all manner of Fruits both Kernel and Stone and sometimes for other Trees that bear no Fruit. The Cleft is also proper for all manner of good Fruit Trees and even for other great Trees provided both the one and the other have at least three or four Inches Circumference at the place where the Graff is to be so perform'd Clefts are not generally so proper for Stone Fruit especially Peaches as for Kernel Fruit the Curiosos of some Provinces in Guyenne affirm the Contrary The Crown or Graffs between the Wood and the Bark as well as Whip-Graffing are particularly for thick Branches or for thick shorten'd Stems of Kernel Fruit and are nought for Stone Fruit as well as for all Branches and Stems of a moderate Size which are too weak to press their Graffs sufficiently CHAP. XIII Of Proper Times to Graff THE Proper Times to Graff are First the beginning of May in which the Sap being risen into the Trees especially in the Branches of the preceeding years Growth without the Eyes or Buds having shot yet the Bark loosens easily insomuch that they may be stript with ease which is necessary for those kind of Graffs in question This Month of May is only proper for Inarching which as we have already said is only fit for Chesnut Maron and Fig-Trees c. Secondly The middle of June is proper for Inoculating which is only to be us'd for certain Stone Fruits for Instance for Cherries Morellos and Bigarreaux upon a small bitter Wild-Cherry and Peaches upon old Almond-Trees c. Thirdly The Months of July and August for Budding or Inoculating Trees which by the small Vigour of their Foot or else by reason of the excessive Heat and Draughts which happen sometimes at that Time seem to have a visible if not total dimunition of Sap for you must know that this way of Inoculating with a close Eye or shut Bud requires but little Sap particularly from the Stock upon which after having made the necessary Incision the Scutcheon must be apply'd Too great an abundance of Sap in the Stock is pernicious to that apply'd Scutcheon by reason that it is commonly Drown'd there with Gum whereas it should only stick without meeting any thing there for the remainder of the year capable of making it Shoot it stands in need but of a very small
either upon St. Julian Plums or black Damask or upon Apricock Trees already Graffed or upon young Almond-Trees of that years growth they seldom succeed upon Stones of other Peach or Apricock Trees neither do Peaches succeed better being Graffed upon the Principal kinds of Plums than the Plum-Trees themselves as we have said already Peaches Budded in the Month of June are more apt to deceive the Gard'ners hope than to confirm it for the Scutcheon either perishes with Gum without having shot or often perishes after having shot or lastly as it commonly Shoots but weakly during that first Summer it perishes the following Winter by Cold and by Ice therefore they must seldom be Graffed and that but casually and upon Stocks that otherwise would be of no use Among what is vulgarly call'd Cherries we reckon Merises or a small Wild Cherry both White and Black White and Black Hearts Early and Late Cherries Griotes Bigareaux Cerisiers de Pied White Cherries All these kind of Cherries are Graffed except the Meriziers or small White bitter Cherry which are not worth it but then those Meriziers especially the White ones which grow in the Fields and in Vineyards from each others Suckers are very good Stocks to Graff other Principal kinds upon viz. Hasty and Late Cherries Hearts Griotes Bigarreaux c. Suckers which Spring from the Root of other Cherries Produce pretty good Cherries and serve to be Graffed upon particularly with Early Cherries which are a kind of Cherry of a Moderate Size that are seldom Planted but in Espaliers to produce Fruit betimes they are most Valued for their Earliness and are no longer minded when the fine Cherries which come soon after begin to appear Early Cherries require no very Vigorous Stocks as the Merisiers do which have a far greater Disposition to Shoot abundance of VVood that to bear Fruit Speedily You may Graff Fig-Trees if you please but as I have already said in the Treatise of the Choice of Figs there accrues but little Advantage by Graffing of them Azerolles are Budded or Graffed in the Cleft Particularly upon the VVhite-Thorn they are likewise Graffed some times upon small Pear-VVildlings which Succeed pretty well and sometimes upon Quince and Graffed Pear-Trees but the Success is not very certain As for the Quince-Apple it is seldom Graffed by reason that Quince-Trees Produce Fruit so easily of themselves yet they may be Graffed upon one another thus you may Graff Portugal-Quince-Trees upon French ones you may likewise Graff them upon Pear-Trees whether Graffed or Wildlings Vines are only Graffed upon old Plants of other Vines and only in the Cleft they are shorten'd on purpose for it and when the Graff is made the Place so shorten'd must be cover'd with Earth yet without covering the Twigs or Cyons that are Graffed the Heat of the Sun and Drought would kill the Graff if it were left expos'd to the Air like the Cleft-Graffs of other Fruit-Trees there is this difference between the Cleft Graff of Vines and that of other Fruit-Trees that the Graff is plac'd indifferently in the middle or on the sides of the shorten'd Trunk which cannot be done to other Fruit Trees Graffed in the Cleft as we have observ'd heretofore Meddlar Trees are Graffed either upon other Meddlars or upon VVhite-Thorn or Pear-VVildlings or Pears Trees already Graffed or else upon Quince-Stocks Almond-Trees whether with hard or tender Nuts grow most Commonly from Almonds put into the Ground or Graffed upon one another CHAP. XVI Of Nurseries and Seminaries IT is proper to begin this Chapter by saying that our Nurseries require a good Easie Soil or ground well Till'd having at least two Foot and a half Depth the Trees must be placed in rows at three Foot distance according to the largeness of the Trees and at a Foot and a half two or three Foot distance from one another in the said rows still according to the proportion of the Sizes Of all VVildlings Almonds are plac'd closest in the Rows T is easy to conclude from what I have been saying in the foregoing Chapter about all kinds of Fruits to be Graffed what kind of Stocks are most proper to make Nurseries of all kind of Fruits First for Pears you must Plant VVildlings out of VVoods and Forests or VVildlings grown from Kernels or Suckers Sprouted from the Roots of old Pear-Trees or else Plant Quince-Trees all which must be well Condition'd both as to the Roots and Stem Secondly For the Apple-Tree Seminary when you design to have them High-Standards you must Plant pretty large VVildlings taken out of VVoods and Forrests to Graff them in the Cleft or Kernel VVildlings to Inoculate them when they are about two Inches Circumference and are to shoot up in order to become High-Standards and when you design to make a Seminary of Dwarfs you must Plant Paradice-Apple-Trees at a Foot distance in the rows And that by reason that those kind of little Apple-Trees shoot but few Roots and Consequently require but little Room Thirdly To make a Seminary of Plum-Trees you must only Plant the Suckers of certain Plum-Trees viz St. Julian Black-Damask the little Cherry-Plum those that are large enough to bear it are Graffed in the Cleft and the lesser with the Scutcheon Fourthly Good Seminaries for Peaches must consist of St. Julian and Black Damask Plum-Trees which must be Inoculated or Budded in the Months of July or August or young Almond-Trees that is Almond-Trees grown from an Almond Planted in good Grounds in the VVinter time grown about September following half an Inch thick to be Budded at that time Old Almond-Trees of two or three Years standing are hot proper to be Graffed Fifthly to make Nurseries of red Stone-fruit viz. Cherries Griottes Bigarreaux no Stocks are so proper as Merisiers which is a small wild bitter Cherry especially such as beat whitish ones the Sap of the black ones is commonly so bitter that the Graffs of good Cherries do not take upon them or always pine away Suckers which spring from the Roots of other Cherries may serve to Graff good Cherries upon but they are most proper to be Graffed with early Cherries Sixthly Fig-Tree Seminaries are Planted with Suckers sprouted from the Foot of Old Fig-Trees or with Branches of two years standing laid into the Ground and notch'd in that part which is most bent and laid into that Ground Seventhly for the Nursery of Azeroles you must only Plant White-Thorn and some few Quince-stocks Eighthly no Nurseries are made for Vines they are seldom Graffed otherwise than upon Old Plants ready Planted Finally for Medlars People seldom make any particular Nurseries the least quantity of them is sufficient a dozen Wildlings of that kind or White-Thorn or Quince-stocks are sufficient to provide for the Largest Gardens Before I proceed to the Sixth Part I think it will not be altogether improper to give my Opinion about the different kinds of Lattices to the end that People may determine at first to pitch upon
abundance of Flowers which begin to display their beauties on every side and the harmony of the pretty Birds which a sort of extraordinary gayety and briskness at this time inspires with amorous prattle and with melodious Airs to strive to out-vie each other This neatness may concurr to make a Theater of pleasure universally perfect which may with irresistible allurements intice the curious to the divertisement of walking in so delicious a place In the Month of April we are not to find any thing new to be done in our Kitchen-Gardens unless it be an augmentation of Hot Beds for Musk-Melons and Cucumbers The Earth in them should now be covered almost all over with a new decoration of Infant Plants Here we should see Artichokes rising as 't were from the dead and there Asparagus piercing the Ground in a thousand places here we should with pleasure observe the Cabbage Lettuce wind up it self into round Balls and here that multitude of Green Herbs and Legumes so different in colour and so various in their shapes These these are the Innocent and natural Dainties which there present themselves for the nourishment and Delicious entertainment of Humane kind The Jacinth the Tulip the Anemone the Ranimculus and so many other Flowers with what Glories do they not adorn the Gardens where they are That which is here to be remarked is only the ordinary maintaining of what is already done and perfected but that which should most take up our thoughts is the hopes of a future crop of Fruits every one now being eager to run and view the Trees that shed their Blossoms to see whether much Fruit knit upon them or no or else to visit the Hot Beds of Musk-Melons and Cucumbers that seem to have taken well to see how liberally they are like to recompence them for all the pains bestowed upon them When the Month of May comes in what contentment have we not in useful Gardens and how great are the sweets of enjoyment which we begin then to taste We have now no longer occasion to demand why such and such spots of Ground are yet bare Spanish Cardons Collyflowers Chard-Beets Cellery and even Artichokes and Cabbage Lettuces which were not to appear so early and for which those places were designed coming to occupy them at the latter end of April or beginning of this Month and Purslain which because of the delicateness of its temper had till now been retain'd in the Seed Closet comes out at this time to gild the Earth and to offer it self in abundance to pleasure its Master The Straw-berries beginning to come now to maturity open and lead the way to the other Red Fruits which are immediately to follow after them Green Peas are ready to satisfie the longing Appetire of the lickerish Palate Mushrooms shoot up in Crowds and in fine of all the things contained in the Alphabet I have premised before this Treatise there is hardly any but Spinage and Mâches that stave off the performance of their duty till August and September for we may now see some little beginnings even of Endive and if Hasting or Early Cherries were the first Fruit that appeared in this Month of May the Hasting Apricocks the Little Muscat Pears and the Avant Peaches or Forward Peaches will not leave them long alone to enjoy the glory of being the sole Riches and Ornaments of our Gardens all these Fruits being now preparing themselves to appear in a very few days the Musk-Melons likewise will not stay long behind them c. while the Cucumbers with an infinite number both of Lettuces and of other Plants satisfie both our Palates and Necessities as the Flowers together with the Orange-Trees which in Mid-May we carry abroad out of their houses perform likewise their functions in delighting both our Sight and Smell The parching heat of the Month of June hinders us indeed from going into our Garden in the heat of the day but what charms are there not in going to visit it Morning and Evening when the cool breathings of a gentle Zephir reign there with Sovereign sway Now is the Season when we may visibly perceive with our Eyes all things to grow and thrive and see a Branch that five or six days before was not above a foot long now shot out to three or four Leeks are now planted and squares covered with Green Herbs compleat the tapestry that odorns the Ground the Vine Flowers make an end of throughly embalming the air which was already all over perfumed with the grateful odour of the Straw-berries We gather in all parts and at the same time with profusion distribute all those Plants that are become so beautiful and accomplish'd we fill up the places again we had disfurnish'd so that there hardly ever remains any part void and nature now affects no better divertisement than to be amazing us with miracles of fertillity so well assisted as she is by the kindly warmth of the Father of Light only she needs now and then the Auxiliary refreshment of convenient moisture moisture which the propitious Clouds sometimes abundantly pour down but which sometimes the Gard'ners Industry too is fain to supply her with in time of need The Cold Beds and Counterborders Levelled and adjusted so even to a line and so well furnish'd with Cabbage-Lettuces what pleasure do they not afford to behold them That forest of Artichokes of different colours which appears in a select and particular place doth it not call out to the curious to come and admire them and more especially to judge of their goodness and delicacy whilst they are also passing their opinions of their beauty and abundance The Palisades and Pole-Hedges so exquisitely well extended and resounding with the warbling notes of chirping Birds which we pass through in going to this Kitchen-Garden commence the pleasure of their walk compleat it at their going back and inspire them with a longing desire to return again with all convenient speed In these two Months of July and August Kitchen-Gardens should be so richly and happily endowed with whatsoever their condition is capable of that we may find plenty of all things there both to satisfie the pleasures of the present and provide for the necessities of the future time so that let us require of them what we please they may be as ready to answer as we to make our Demands As for example have we a mind to all or any sorts of Herbs Roots Sallets Perfumes c. They will immediately furnish us with them have we a fancy to any Musk-Melons those chief and principal Fruits of our Climate we may smell them a great way off and need but follow our noses and go and visit them and stoop and gather them Would we have any Cucumbers flat Pumpions or other Pumpions or Citrulls Mushrooms c. They will present us with store of them Do our Appetites further crave after Artichokes or Pears Plums Figs. c. we may be sure
that grows in the Woods and consequently that loves the shade we therefore plant it along by the sides of our Northern Walls at the distance of about one foot between one plant and another the more we strip it of its Leaves which is one good quality it has the more fresh ones it shoots forth It is enough to set it two Inches into the Ground it lasts three or four years without being renewed and to renew it we need do no more than to separate or slip out the great Tufts of it into several little ones and replant them again immediately which is to be done in the Months of March and April a little watering in very Hot weather and especially in sandy Grounds is a very great and welcome help to them Anis and Fennel are commonly sown pretty thin either in surrows or borders their Leaves are used in Sallets among other Furnitures They run to Seed towards the Month of August and when their stalks are cut down they shoot out new Leaves the next year that are as good as the first but however it is best to renew them every two years Arrach Orrach or Orage is propagated only by Seed and is both one of the quickest both in coming up and in running to Seed which latter it does at the very beginning of June It is sown pretty thin and to have good Seed of it we must transplant some plants of it in some separate place The Leaf of this plant is very good both in pottage and in stuffings or farces we use it almost as soon as it peeps out of the Earth for it passes away very quickly and to have some the more early we sow a little quantity of it upon a Hot Bed It thrives well enough in all sorts of Grounds but yet it grows always fairer in good Grounds than in but indifferent ones Aromatick or sweet or spicy Herbs such as are planted in Edgings of Borders as Marjoram Time Sage Rosemary c. See their Culture under the several Titles of each of those particular Herbs Artichokes as we have already elsewhere told you are multiplied by their Eyes Suckers Slips or Off-Sets which every plant of them usually shoots out every year in the Spring round about its old Root and which must be taken off as soon as they are grown big enough leaving only at each place three of the best and furthest distant one from the other For the planting them we commonly make little Trenches or Pits about half a foot deep and three foot distant one from another and filled with Mold and we place two rows of them regulated by a line in each Bed which is to be full four foot broad and parted from the next Bed by a path-way of one full foot these Trenches of Pits are to be made at about half a foot 's distance from the edge of the Bed and Checquerwise one towards the other we place two Slips in a right Line in each space containing between Nine and Ten Inches in Length We must renew them once every three years at least cut off their Leaves at the beginning of Winter and cover them with long dry dung during all the very cold weather till the end of March when we must uncover them and slip them if their Slips be yet big enough or else stay three Weeks or a Month longer till they be then we must labour and move the Earth well about them and dung them with the rottenest part of that Dung that served them for a covering we water them moderately once or twice a Week till about the end of May their Fruit begins to appear and from that time we must water them plentifully that is two or three times a Week during the whole Summer allowing half a Pitcher full of Water to each plant and especially in Grounds naturally dry those planted in the Spring should bring their Fruit to perfection in Autumn following if well watered and they which do not ought to yield their first Fruit in the next Spring after in case they be strong enough to resist the sharpness of the Winter Artichokes have not only the hard weather and excess of wet to fear but they have the Field Mice likewise for their Enemies those mischievous little Animals gnawing their Roots in the Winter-time when they find nothing better in the Gardens and for that reason it 's good to plant one Rank of Beet-Chards between two Ranks of Artichokes that the Field-Mice finding the Roots of these last the tendrer of the two may fall upon them instead of the others as they never fail to do There are three sorts of Artichokes viz. the green or otherwise white ones which are the most early the violet ones whose Fruit is almost of a pyramidal Figure and the red ones which are round and flat like the white ones The two last sorts are the most delicious Artichoke Chards See Chards Asparagus are sown at the beginning of the Spring like other Seeds that is they are sown in some Bed well prepared they must be sown indifferent thin and raked with an Iron Rake to cover them with Earth About a year after if they be big enough as they will be if the Ground be good and well prepared or if not at least at two years end we must tranplant them which is to be done about the end of March and all the Month of April and for that effect we must have Beds between three and four foot broad and separated one from the other if it be in ordinary Ground we dig these Beds hollow with a good Spade throwing up the Earth we take out of them upon the Path-ways and as to strong heavy and moist Grounds I would have them ordered as I have done the Kitchen-Garden at Versailles that is to say I would not have the Beds in them at all laid hollow but on the contrary raised and kept higher than the Path-ways too much wet being mortal to these Plants Asparagus thus sown shoot out Tufts of Roots round about their Eye or Mother Root that is to say round the place from whence all their shoots are to Spring which Roots spread between two Earths and in order to transplant them either into a hollow Bed or a high raised Bed we bestow a good thorough Tillage on the bottom of the Trench and if the Ground be not very good we dung it a little and afterward we plant two or three stocks of these young Plants orderly in ranks upon the Superâ—icies of the Bed prepared for them without needing to trim the extremity of their Roots or at least but a very little and if our intention be to force these Asparagus by an artificial heat when they are grown big enough we place them at a foot distance one from the other and if they be to remain to grow after the usual manner we allow them at a foot and a half 's distance but in both Cases we place them Checquerwise and when they
are so placed we cover them up again with two or three Inches depth of Earth if any of them fail to Spring up we may reimplace them with new ones two or three Months after which is to be done in the same manner as we planted the others only taking care to water the new planted ones sometimes during the great heat and to keep them always well weeded and well dug about or else we mark out with little sticks the empty places and stay till the Spring before we fill them up again Every year we cover the Bed with a little Earth taken off from the Path-way because instead of sinking they always are rising by little and little we dung them moderately every two years and let them shoot up the first three or four years without gathering any till we see them begin to grow pretty thick and then we may force as many as we please of them or if not we continue to gather of them every year a crop for fifteen years before we need to renew them Every year about Martlemas we cut down all their stems every stock producing several stems and take the seed of the fairest of them for Seed if we would have them come to bear at the time above-mentioned To draw them out of their Nursery-Beds we use an Iron Fork the Spade being too dangerous for that work because it would cut and hurt those little Plants We must not fail every Year at the latter end of March or beginning of April that is before the Asparagus begin to sprout naturally to bestow a small dressing or stirring of the Ground about three or four Inches deep on every Bed taking care not to let the Spade go so deep as to hurt the Plants which small dressing serves both to kill the Weeds and to render the Superficies of the Earth loose and thereby not only the better to dispose it to drink up the Rain and the May-dew that nourishes the Stocks but likewise to facilitate the passage of the Asparagus in sprouting The particular and most dreadful Enemies of Asparagus are a sort of little Fleas that fasten upon their shoots make them miscarry and hinder them from thriving they are most troublesome in very hot and dry years not appearing at all in other years there has been no Remedy found yet against this mischief B. BAlm called in French Melisse is an Odoriferous Herb whose Leaf when tender makes a part of Sallet-Furnitures It is multiplyed both by Seed and by rooted Branches like Lavender Time Hyssop c. Basil is an annual Plant that is very delicate We seldom sow it but upon Hot Beds and not in open Ground as we do Purslain Lettuce c. We begin to sow some in that manner at the very beginning of February and we may continue so to do the whole year It s tender Leaves are mixed in a small quantity with the Furnitures of Sallets among which they make an agreeable perfume It is likewise used in Ragou's especially dry ones for which reason we take care to keep some for Winter We gather its Seed in the Month of August and usually to make it run to Seed we transplant it in the Month of May either in Pots or Beds There are several sorts of it but that which bears the biggest Leaves and especially if they incline to a Violet Colour and that which bears the least Leaves are the two most curious that which produces midling ones being the ordinary or Common sort The Common Bays or Bay-Tree is a shurb of no very great use in our Gardens and therefore it is enough to have some few Plants of it in some well sheltered place to gather some Leaves of them when occasion requires Beans as well those of the Common and Garden sort as those called Kidney-Beans and French-Beans and in French Aricôs are sown in open Ground and grow not otherwise The Aricô French or Kidney-Beans are sown about the latter end of April and all the Month of May and are very sensible of the Frost The Common Garden Beans are sown at the same time with Hasting-Peas both in November and in February Hot Beds See the Works in November Bete-raves or Red Beet-Roots are annual Plants propagated only by Seed and are seldom transplanted They are sown in the Month of March either in Beds or Borders They must be sown very thin or at least if they come up too thick they must be very much thinned or else they will not grow so fair and large as they should be They require a very good and well prepared Ground They are the best that have the Reddest substance and the Reddest Tops They are not good to spend till towards the end of Autumn and all the Winter Season To have Seed of them we transplant in March some of the last years Roots that we have preserved from the Frost their Seed is gathered in the Months of August and September White or Chard-Beets See Chards Borage and Bugloss grow and are to be ordered in the same manner as Arrach only they come not up so vigorously We sow of them several times in the same Summer because their Leaves in which consists all their excellence are good only whilst they are tender that is while they are young Their little Violet Colour'd Flowers serve to adorn Sallets Their Seed falls assoon as 't is ripe and therefore must be carefully watch'd The surest way is to cut down the stalks and lay them a drying in the Sun assoon as ever the Seeds begin to ripen and by that means we shall lose but very few Bourdelai's otherwise called Verjuice as well the White as Red sort is a kind of Vine which is pruned and slipt or layed and graffed and planted as other Vines are in the Months of January February and March Care must be taken to tie up its Branches either to props or some sort of trail about the middle of June at latest or else the wind destroys it quite We must also pick and pluck off the weak and unprofitable Branches of these Vines and when we prune them 't is enough to leave two three or four fair Branches at most upon each stock and to keep them not above three or four buds long every one of which usually shoots forth one bearing Branch with three or four fair Bunches of Grapes upon each Branch My practice is in all sorts of Vines but particularly in the Muscat or Musked sorts to keep the lower Branches shorter by two buds than the highest to keep the Plant always low when I would not have them mount up upon a Trail Buckshorn-Sallet See Hartshorn-Sallet Burnet called in French Pimprenelle or Pimpernelle is a very Common and ordinary Sallet furniture which is seldom sown but in the Spring and is sown thick either in Beds or Borders It often Springs afresh after cutting of which the youngest shoots must be chosen for Sallets the Leaves that are any thing old being too tough It does
of it two several times to be supplied with it so much the longer because that which has been long sown easily runs to Seed and grows hard We sow it then the first time upon Hot Beds in the beginning of April and because its Seed is so extream small we cannot help sowing it too thick so that if we be not careful to thin it and crop it in time to make it grow to some strength and bigness before we transplant it it warps and flags its head too much and grows weak and shoots its Leaves straglingly outward instead of producing store of them from the middle of its stock The surest way is to transplant it in a Nursery Bed placing the Plants two or three Inches one from another for which we make holes with our fingers only we transplant that which comes of the first sowing at the beginning of June and sow our second sowing at the latter end of May or beginning of June but 't is in open Beds and we take the same care to thin crop and transplant this as we did that of the first sowing but we must plant more of it the second time than at the first There are two ways of transplanting it the one is in a Pit or Trench one full spit deep and between three and four foot broad in order to place in it three or four ranks of these Plants at the distance of one foot from one another This way of making hollow Beds Earth up our Cellery in is good only in dry Grounds wet ones being too apt to rot it The second way of transplanting it is in plain Beds that are not made hollow and at the same distances as in the other taking care in both sorts of Beds to water them extreamly in Summer time its chief goodness consisting in being tender as well as in being very White Watering contributes to the first kind of goodness and for the second you are to observe that to Whiten Cellery we begin at first to tie it with two bands when it is big enough chusing dry weather for that effect and afterward we Earth our Cellery Plants quite up with Earth taken off the high raised path-ways or else cover it all over with a good quantity of long dry Dung or dry Leaves as we do Cardoons Cellery so Earthed up with dry Earth or Clothed with long dry Dung or dry Leaves to the very top of its Leaves Whitens in three weeks or a Month and because when 't is Whited it rots as it stands if it be not presently eaten by consequence we are not to Earth it up or cover it with Dung but in such proportion as we are able to spend out of hand there needs no other precaution to be used to it so long as it does not freeze but as soon as ever it begins to set to freeze we must then cover up our Cellery quite over head and ears for a hard Frost spoils it presently And that we may the more easily cover it after we have first tied it up with two or three bands we take it up with the Earth about it at the beginning of Winter and plant it in another Bed setting the Plants as close as we can one to another and then there needs much less stuff to cover them than when they are left standing in their old places at such great distances asunder The way to raise Seed from them is to transplant some Plants of them in some by-place after Winter is past which will not fail to run to Seed in the Month of August we know but one sort of it Chards of Artichokes otherwise called Costons are the Leaves of fair Artichoke Plants tied and wrapt up with Straw in Autumn and Winter which being covered up all over but at their very top with Straw grow white and by that means lose a little of their bitterness so that when they are boiled they are served up like true Spanish Cardons but after all are not so good and besides the Plants often rot and perish whilst we are whiting them Chard-Beets are Plants of white Beets transplanted in a well prepared Bed at the distance of a full foot one from the other which produce great Tops that in the middle have a large white and thick downy Cotton-like Main shoot and that downy Cotton-like shoot is the true Chard used in Pottages and Intermesses After we have sown white Beets upon Hot Beds or in the naked Earth in the Month of March we transplant that which is yellowest in Beds purposely prepared and by taking care to water them well during the Summer they grow big and strong enough to resist the hard winter cold provided care be taken to cover them with long dry Dung just as we do Artichokes They are likewise well placed when two Ranks of them are transplanted between two Ranks of Artichokes We uncover them in April and dress the Earth about them and give them careful attendance and by the means of this diligent Culture they produce those fine Chards we have in the Rogation Season and in the Months of May and June in fine they run to Seed which we gather in the Months of July and August to sow in the following Spring The Chassela's is a very good and sweet sort of Grape of which there are two kinds white and Red and this latter is very scarce and rare but the other very common It requires the good Expositions of the South East and West to be so much the yellower the more firm and crackling the better It is of all Grapes that which keeps longest if it be not suffered to grow too ripe upon the Vine before it be gathered It s Culture which consists in pruning it is the same with that of the Bourdelais or Verjuice Grape Musked Chervil is one of our Sallet-Furnitures and at the beginning of the Spring whilst its Leaves are young and tender it is agreeable and proper to contribute towards the giving a perfuming Relish but they are to be used no longer when they are old and tough It remains several Years in its place without being spoiled by the Frost so that its Stock grows pretty big and high it runs to Seed towards the Month of June and by that is multiplyed Ordinary Chervil is an annual Plant or rather a plant of few Months which serves for many Uses and especially in Sallets when it is young and tender and therefore we ought to see a little of it every Month proportionably to the occasions we have for it and to the quantity of Ground we have It runs very easily to Seed and if we have some of it betimes we must sow it about the end of Autumn and doubtless we shall have the Seed quite ripe towards the middle of June following we cut down the stalks as soon as it begins to grow yellow and beat it out as we do that of other Plants Chicons are a sort of Lettuces to tie up see their Culture under
Lettuces Cibouls or Chibouls properly speaking are but Onions that are degenerated and of which Nature has as 't were miscarried that is to say Onions that instead of producing a thick Root in the Earth and one single stem produces but a small Root and several Stems or upright Shoots and those which produce most of them are most esteemed which are the sort of which we should be most careful to preserve Seed and which if planted in March will yield us Seed fit to gather in August We sow Cibouls almost every Month in the Year except in very hard Weather when the Earth cannot be cultivated their Seed is so perfectly like that of Onions that they cannot be distinguisht one from the other but the former never recover so as to produce Onions and particularly those we pluck up out of the Onion Beds which are sown too thick and must be thin'd that those which are left may grow the bigger We thin our Cibouls also for the same and we transplant some which prosper very well and grow big when they are so transplanted It is convenient sometimes to water our Ciboul Beds in Summers that prove extraordinary dry and unless in such cases they will not need watering but however they must be always planted in good Earth English Cives otherwise called Appetites are multiplied by producing thick Tufts which are slipt out and separated into many little ones and are transplanted nine or ten Inches asunder either in Borders or Beds they require pretty good Ground with which if they be accommodated they will last three or four years without removing without needing any great culture it being enough to keep them well weeded and to water them sometimes during the great heat It is their Leaves only that are used for one of the Sallet Furnitures Citrulls or ordinary Pompions Pumpions or Pumkins and Potirons or flat Pumpions as every body knows are the biggest productions the Earth brings forth in our Climates for whose culture there is little to be done usually we sow them in Hot Beds towards the middle of March that being the only way to preserve and multiply them and at the end of April we take them up with the Earth about them to transplant them in holes made for that purpose of about two foot diameter and one foot deep and two Toises or Fathoms asunder one from the other which are filled with mold when their Vines begin to grow five or six foot long which happens about the beginning of June we throw upon them in the middle of that length some shovels full of Earth both to prevent their being broken by the winds driving them to and fro and to make them take root at the place so covered by which means the Fruit that grows beyond that part will be the better nourished and consequently grow the bigger There are two sorts of Citruls or Pumpions the Green and the Whitish ones but neither of them are sit to be gathered till they be Augusted that is till they be grown Yellow and their skin grown tough enough to resist ones nail We keep of them in our store-houses till about the middle of Lent when they have been seasonably gather'd and well defended from the Cold All sorts of situation in the open Air agree with them well enough but yet they which are well exposed ripen sooner than the others we trim nothing off from them but only content our selves with watering them sometimes when the Summers are excessive dry Their Seed is found in their Bellies Coleworts and Collystowers are included under Cabbage Costons of Artichokes See Chards Garden Cresses is one of the little Sallet Furnitures and is a Plant that lasts but a little while We sow of it every Month as we do Chervil that we may have always some of it that is tender and we sow it very thick It is propagated only by Seed which it is very apt to run to and which we begin to gather at the end of June cutting down the stalks in order to dry them and beat out the Seeds and winnow them as we do those of other Plants assoon as we perceive any of them to ripen Cucumber See their culture under the head of Melons and Musk-Melons It is to be observed that a Cucumber Plant yields a great quantity of Fruit and for a long time when 't is well cultivated and especially when 't is well watered Currans and Goose berries both being comprehended under the French name Groseilles both the Red and White or Pearled sort termed in English Currans and the prickly sort called in English Dutch Goose-berries are kinds of little Fruit shrubs which yield a great deal of Fruit. They produce round about their old stock a great number of rooted suckers or slips which serve to propagate them besides which their Branches and especially the young ones that are cut off from them take root easily They are planted in the Month of March at the distance of at least six good foot one from the other either in whole Beds or squares or in the void spaces between the Dwarf-Trees which are usually planted about the squares of Kitchen or Fruit-Gardens Both of them delight in a Ground that is a little moist the better to enable them to produce thick shoots and consequently good Fruit. The Red and Pearled or White sort called in English Currans produce Bunches which are Ripe in July but the prickly ones named in English Goose berries produce none but bear their Fruit upon single stalks all along the young Branches of the preceeding years growth and that at the place of every one of the Eyes or Buds of that Branch The Fruit of this latter is used particularly in March and April in Compôtes or wet sweet-meats and sauces for which uses it must be very Green for when it is Ripe it grows too soft and flat The culture that is most proper to be used to both Currans and Goose-berries and especially to the Currans consists in cutting away all their old wood and preserving only that of one and two years growth for a confused mixture of one with the other is not only very indisagreeable and pernicious but the old Branches will bear nothing but very small Fruit till at last they quite degenerate so that they will bear none but small common and very crabbed sowre Currans or Goose-berries and assoon as the old stocks have done bearing any longer either fair Branches or good Fruit we should take a Resolution utterly to grub them up after we have first raised a plantation of new ones in some other choice fresh piece of Ground to supply their places for a Garden ought by no means to be without fair Currans and Goose-berries and assoon as ever the new ones begin to bear we are to destroy the old ones which make but a very unsightly figure in a Garden D. SHarp Dock or Dock-Sorrel or Patience properly speaking is but a sort of very great or large Sorrel
is easily to be cleft lengthways viz. From the Head to the Foot or from Foot to Head as if in that Position the Fibres of which its Trunk consists were in some manner like Threads wrapped close one over another But to take it breadthways or across from one side to the other 't is very difficult to cleave it For the several Parts are so compacted and linked together that each of them seems to make a little All perfect and entire in it self neither can any Separation be made of it but by means of a sharp-edg'd Tool What Effects are produced by the continuance of the Sap are yet more fully demonstrated by its contrary namely by the too quick Passage of it as it happens especially in any sort of Fruit-Trees whether Core or Stone-Fruit when the Sap following its usual Course which is to ascend by regular Steps to the extremities of the Branches doth in its Passage open to it self an indirect and extraordinary way into some other part of the Tree and in few days puts forth what we call Suckers or False Shoots The Sap I say being thus disordered and making its Escape with some sort of Violence bursts out and rises with an impetuous force and during that first Effort makes no stay in its Passage From hence it comes to pass that those Eyes which are nearest that breaking out are very far distant from one another are flat and ill nourished so as to be scarcely discernible But when the violence of that first Effort is somewhat abated the Sap returns to its ordinary pace and seems to have its regular Pauses whereby it both forms those Eyes nearer to each other and affords them better Nourishment So that while the lower Parts are accounted useless and false Wood the upper on the contrary prove fruitful and well condition'd The Reader perhaps may think I have insisted too long upon this Comparison between Sap and Light but as I could not explain my Notion more briefly concerning that extream quickness wherewith the Sap after its being prepared by the Roots seems as it were to fly to all the extremities of the Branches so I wish that even thus I may have the good fortune to be understood CHAP. XV. Reflections upon some other Effects proceeding from the greater or lesser Quantity of the Sap. I Shall now proceed to give another Instance wherein a lighted Torch and the Roots of Trees have a mutual Analogy or Resemblance for a further Confirmation of my Opinion concerning the different Operation of the Roots in relation to the Sap which causes the Thickening Lengthening and indeed the Universal Extension of the Tree For as a Luminous Body the bigger and brighter it is the farther will it diffuse its Light just so those Roots that are thickest hardest and most vigorous in their Operation do force up highest that Sap or Nourishment that is prepared by them And hence it is very easie to give a Reason how the Extremities of some Trees or Branches come to die which certainly in my Opinion is nothing else but only the want of some of those substantial and strong Roots growing out of the foot of the Tree whence consequently it happens that there is not Sap enough prepared to rise up so high as it used to do either in former Years or even in that very Season wherein this Defect was observed For Instance The Sap that in other Years used to rise 3 or 4 Fathoms may now perhaps rise but 10 or 12 Feet and of this you have a certain Indication when the new Branches shoot out no where but at a considerable distance below the Extremities of the old ones On the other hand when the Sap in the beginning of the Year had advanced the Boughs 3 or 4 Feet in height and yet towards the latter end of the Summer they begin to grow blackish and at last to wither and die within 5 or 6 Inches of the Top and this even when the Root seemed in the Spring to have sufficiently done its part and the Soil to have been duly qualified with such a just proportion of Heat and Moisture as was requisite for their Vegetation When this I say happens it must be ascribed to no other Cause than the drying up of their Moisture by the excessive Heat of the Summer in regard that their Roots being but small and weak could not so well resist the Violence of it as those which were more vigorous and substantial What means are proper to be used for the preventing of such Accidents I have already mentioned elsewhere Now since the more vigorous the Root is the more vigorously also it will act and consequently suck in more Nourishment and cause that Nourishment to rise so much higher it must undoubtedly follow that the rising of the Sap to the Top of the Branches whereby there is an Accession made to their former length proceeds only from this vigour and strength of the Root as on the other side the weakness of the Root is the true cause that the Sap not being in a sufficient quantity to rise to a considerable height is confined much lower than its usual pitch And indeed it seems probable that as all Animals are limited to such a determinate Size and Proportion and as a Fountain containing such a quantity of Water and conveyed by a Pipe of such a Capacity cannot raise it up to a greater height than the Level of that Source from whence it flows In the very same manner the Dimensions of all Vegetables seem to be confined to a certain stint both of height and circumference so as to have a fixed Point to which the Sap may ascend in order to the putting forth new Branches but cannot possibly rise higher to cause any further Production Thus if we Lop a Tree 5 or 6 Feet whose usual height does not exceed 10 or 12 it will always appear vigorous and lively till it have recovered its usual height of 12 Feet and the Reason is because it will be continually labouring to exert it self to the utmost Sphere of its Activity and consequently there is no danger of its falling to Decay or dying at the Extremities of its Branches It must therefore be the Gardiner's business to render himself expert in his Profession by a diligent Observation of what is necessary to be done both in the Ordering of his Trees and the Manuring of the Ground and indeed the difference that is between a Fertile and Barren Soil will assist him very much in the making a true Estimate of the Force and Vigour of the Sap. For in a Soil that is really good a Tree will grow 30 or 35 Feet high with a Circumference proportionable but if the Soil be lank or barren a Tree though of the same Species and as well Condition'd as the other will not perhaps exceed 10 or 12 Feet The former kind of Soil will prove fruitful in a manner without any Cultivation but the latter will be good for
Outside as the whole Mass of the Tree doth so that there is no Analogy between the Vessels in the Body of an Animal and those in a Tree and consequently the Inference deduced from that Comparison must needs be erroneous The third Question wherein I desire to be satisfy'd viz. Whether upon supposition that there be such a Circulation we must say that there is but one general Circulation in each respective Tree or else that there are as many particular Circulations as there are Branches is perhaps as difficult to resolve as any For if we admit but one in general we shall be hard put to it to give an Account how a Slip set in the Ground comes to take so as in a short time to become a perfect Tree We must be forc'd to say that in every one of these Branches there was a true Circulation which ceas'd from Action as soon as they were cut off from the Tree upon which they grew but that as soon as by their Re-plantation they were restor'd to a Condition of Acting of themselves their Circulation also began to resume its Action and by these Steps they came to be perfect Trees If therefore to give a Reason for this Growth of Slips we must admit of a particular Circulation in every Branch we must likewise be forc'd to admit of many Circulations in every Branch For since any Branch may be divided into several Parts if every one of these Parts be set in the Ground with all the due Circumstances belonging to them they will as easily take to grow as if they had been entire Branches But this Solution will draw us into a Progressus in infinitum than which in Ratiocination nothing can be more absurd Thus when a Layer of a Vine being put into the Ground takes a new Root and thereupon that Part of the Layer next to the Earth which before was the smallest becomes in a little time thicker than the Part next adjoyning to the Tree Must we not of necessity have recourse to a new Circulation since the former seems plainly to be at an end or at least to have become altogether useless I must confess I cannot find any Expedient of adjusting all these particular Circulations with the general one to make them act in Conformity with and Subordination to it when they are all together in the same Tree at the same time Such a Cloud of Difficulties and Inconveniencies have prevail'd with me not to give any Credit to this new Opinion of the Circulation of the Sap though I have at the same time an extreme Veneration for those Worthy and Learned Persons who are the Authors of it CHAP. XIX Reflections upon the Opinion that maintains the Conveyance of the Nourishment through the upper parts of the Plant. THere have been some of Opinion that the Nourishment of the Tree is not only derived to it through the Pores and by the Operation of the Roots in the Earth but that there is likewise some Contribution of maintenance afforded by the Air and subtilly conveyed to it through the upper parts of the Tree This Opinion of theirs is grounded upon this Observation That if you make a very strait ligature round any Branch or even if you strip the Bark off it the Boughs that are below that part so tyed or stripp'd will notwithstanding encrease both in length and thickness But to this I Answer First That in some Vegetables viz. In Almonds and Stones of Fruit as also in ordinary Seeds there is no Necessity for this Aerial Nourishment since the whole Series of their Vegetation is performed in the Bowels of the Earth without having the least Communication with the Air. Secondly I Answer that it is impossible to tye any Branch so straitly as that the Sap a Liquor not only very subtil and delicate but also very Impetuous in its Operation shall not insinuate it self and find some passage through for tho' the main stream of the Sap rises up between the Bark and the Tree yet it is certain that some little quantity doth constantly penetrate through the Fibres of the solid Wood neither is it any Wonder if Nature who out of her great abhorrence of a Vacuum does frequently perform such extraordinary and surprizing Wonders may likewise in this case force up the Sap which was stop'd in its Ascent either by that ligature or stripping off the Bark through the very substance or Fibres of the Wood in order to its Nourishing the upper parts of the Tree which must Infallibly have perished without a seasonable Supply Lastly I say it may be Answer'd with very good Reason that this Distension or Tumor of such tyed Branches in their breadth and accretion to their length may be Stiled rather a kind of Dropsie than a real and firm Augmentation of their sound substance and continuity for Experience tells us That in Trees thus tyed or stripp'd the upper parts of the Tree come to dye in a very little time as they must needs do if the Channel be not open'd again to give a free passage to the true Nourishment of the Tree Now to give some other Instances to confirm our Opinion we may consider that those Plants whose Roots lye very deep in the Ground as Tulip-bulbs c. do always grow up to the greatest heighth As also we may observe the Pointed and Pyramidal Extremity of all Branches every one of which seem in the manner of their Growing as with one consent Naturally to tend upward To which we may add as another Corroborating Circumstance the shooting out of new Sprouts upon the Back or Elbow of such Branches as are bent violently or by force to the Ground the Suckers that grow out of the foot of the Tree when it has been injured at the top the decay of the Branches at the Extremities notwithstanding their being still vigorous at the Root as also the Withering and Fading of Plants at the top of their Leaves in hot Weather when they are newly Set All these Instances seem to me evidently Contradictory of any descent of the Sap which they suppose to be caus'd by the Influence of the Air either upon the Bark of the Tree or the Extremity of the Branches The different Tastes in Fruits which always have a smack of their Soil are a sufficient proof that their Nourishment is derived from a Soil of such a Savour and not from the Air which has none at all and certainly if any of the Sap could find a passage across or through the solid Wood it might as well enter in the same manner through the Skin of the Fruit and so the Stalk which by a long Prescription has hitherto been look'd upon as the true and only Channel for Conveyance of the Aliment to the Fruit would have a great many Partners in that Office and consequently become in a manner wholly useless I will not deny but that it is highly necessary for Trees to enjoy the benefit of a temperate Air
whereby the Bark may be rendered the more pliable and easie to be dilated and loos'd from its inclosed Trunk to give the freer passage for the Sap in its rising up from the Root Indeed I can never be persuaded to think that any Nourishment can be conveyed through that Rind but am of Opinion rather that a Tree depriv'd of all its Top Branches in a very hot Region as for instance we may suppose a Row of Trees cut even at the Tops and Planted in a Hedge to the South under the Torrid Zone would be so far from drawing in any Nourishment through the Bole that even the Sap would be so much hindred by the heat of the Air from ascending by its ordinary passage as that the upper part of the Tree would Infallibly perish whence it would follow that the Sap being made unable to rise up to the small upper Boughs would burst out at the foot into an infinite number of new and small Productions As for those who from the Experiment of making an Incision into a Tree pretend to prove this Intromission of Sap into the upper part or to defend the Circulation of the Sap from that Liquor which will run plentifully out of such an Incision in my Opinion they build their Hypothesis upon a very Sandy Foundation For First If we either cut or break off the Top of any Plant the Sap will be seen plainly to gush out in great abundance from each of the two Extremities bubling out of every Pore as well in that part which retain'd its Situation as in the other which was separated from the former Secondly If the Incision be made at the bottom there will run out not only some part of that Sap which is continually ascending but also a little of that which being already upon its rise and having till then been supported by the succeeding Sap must of necessity fall down when destitute of that Support and Foundation of which it was depriv'd by that Incision To conclude If this Incision were a sufficient proof of this Assertion it must follow that all the uppermost Sap must make its way out at one single hole as we see the Water in a Vessel runs all out at any hole it meets with But Experience tells us That how many Incisions soever you make either above or below the first the Sap will issue through all of them but most abundantly through the lowest and in least quantity through the highest which certainly must proceed from the Reason which I have given before CHAP. XX. Reflections upon the undistinguishable likeness of the Sap in the Wood Leaves and Fruit. THere is hardly any Plant growing with us during the whole Summer puts out more Roots and consequently produces greater plenty of Sap than the Fig-Tree does so that we may venture to build our Observations concerning Sap in general upon such Remarks as a particular Enquiry into the Nature of this Tree will afford us The Sap whereof appears to me to have exactly the same Colour Taste and Consistence both in the Wood of the Tree and the Stalk both of the Leaves and Fruit that it has in the Fruit it self whilst it is yet Green for when it comes to be Ripe and fit for Gathering there is not the least sign to be perceived of that white Sap with which it was so plentifully impregnated before it was come to Maturity From hence we may very well advance this general conclusion That there can be no material difference between that Sap which goes to the forming of the Fruit and that which enters into the Composition of all the other parts of the Tree since there is so great a Conformity between them at the time of its passing out of the Stalk into the Fruit. So that admitting the Sap for Fruit to be endued with some particular degrees of Perfection beyond what are to be found in the Sap of the Tree yet what do they think becomes of it when the Fruit which it was design'd to have form'd and nourish'd chances to perish as oftentimes it doth even in the Embryo or at least before it comes to Perfection In this case it must certainly be mixed with the rest of the Sap and be equally employ'd with it in the Production of something that is not Fruit. And this will suggest the Reason to us why Trees without Fruit abound more in Wood than those that bear Fruit plentifully which according to the Opinion I ever had is nothing else but the different proportions of the Sap the smaller quantity whereof causes plenty of Blossoms and Fruits as the greater quantity produces the like Encrease both in the Body and Leaves To this may be added what I have already repeated so often viz. That the Fruit grows at the Top of the weak Branches but at the Bottom of the strong whence it appears that no part of the Branch is exempted from bearing and that they are under a very great mistake who while they pretend to render an account why the weak Branches are generally most loaded with Fruit and particularly towards the Extremities put us off with this Reason That it is for the better concoction and refining of the Sap which say they can be effected no other way than by so long a Passage and Percolation through the narrow Conveyances But suppose this Fancy had some probability of Reason in it how shall we explain the Production of Grapes Quinces Mulberries Azerolles Rasberries c. which receive their Formation at the same time that the Wood does upon which they grow For Example There grows upon every old Branch of a Vine that used to be Pruned in the Spring as many new Branches as there were Eyes left upon it Upon these Branches and at the very same time with them are the Grapes formed which ordinarily do not grow nearer to the end than the third fourth or fifth Knot for from that distance the Branch runs up only in length without bearing any Fruit. This being granted which indeed cannot be denied I would ask them what Ground they have to assert That the Sap is not sufficiently prepared till it arrive at one of these three Eyes and there receive its perfect Digestion for they divide the Sap into two sorts viz. Digested and Indigested the former they tell us is employed both in forming the Grapes in some one of those three Knots and in Production of the Leaves and Branches and yet there is always some Wood Pulp and Husk of the Grape between every one of these Knots to the Formation of which both these Saps did contribute Lastly After this Secretion of the Digested Sap from the Indigested they come both of them to be re-united in order to the Production of Boughs and Leaves only for the remaining part of the Year I must confess ingenuously I am not quick enough to penetrate into and comprehend these so subtile and refined Notions of our modern Philosophers CHAP. XXI Reflections upon the Opinion